WorldWide Drilling Resource

Through the Front Door! by Jim Kuebelbeck Fish Net Part 2 Early the next spring, after the ice went out, I got a call fromRomie. He wanted to go out the next night after dark and put his fish trap in the creek. He would pick me up; and he knew just the place to put the thing where nobody would find it. The next evening after dark, he drove out with his pickup with a big tarp covering “the great fish trap”. Then, driving over to an abandoned farm along the creek, we unloaded the basket and carried it quite some distance. Using a flashlight, we lugged the thing through the heaviest thicket of brush and reeds I had ever seen. I asked Romie how he ever found the out-of-the-way place, and he toldme he had scouted out the location some days before, and the creek was the deepest in this area. Since it was so difficult to get to, he was sure no one would ever spot the basket in this part of the creek. Tying a light rope to the basket and anchoring it to a small tree, it was time to launch it into the water. He suggested we swing it back and forth and on the count of three, throw it out as far as we could into the deeper water. Simple enough, right? On the count of three, the fish basket sailed through the air. Expecting to hear a big splash of some sort, we were surprised to hear what sounded more like a little plop! Taking the flashlight, we were shocked to see the fish trap had only sunk about six inches into the water. “This can’t be,” Romie said. “I know the creek is deeper than that.” Walking closer to the creek to get a better look into the water with the flashlight beam, he just stood there for about 15 seconds without speaking. I finally asked what was wrong. His next words were, “You know, Jim. I think we should call the game warden.” “Call the game warden?” I asked. “Are you crazy? What are you talking about?” “Jim,” he said, “You’re not going to believe this, but we just threw this thing right on top of the game warden’s fish trap! That’s why it didn’t sink. I know it’s his fish trap. I’d recognize it anywhere.” Our next course of action was to pull our fish trap out of the creek and lug it about 150 feet downstream, positioning it in such a way that some fish could easily swim past it and still get into the game warden’s trap upstream, without having him become suspicious of the lack of fish in his illegal trap! But that’s not the end of the story. As luck would have it, a couple days later when Romie was driving out to retrieve any rough fish caught in the trap, he saw the game warden driving out from the abandoned farm site. Continuing on down the main road until the game warden was out of sight, he turned around and drove to check the results of our previous midnight adventure. Finding a number of rough fish in the trap, he put them into a big burlap sack and drove home. Some years before, he had built a thermostatically controlled gas-fired smokehouse, and was often called upon to smoke fish and other types of meat for some of his neighbors in town. Romie called me later the same day and asked if I might be able to help him clean our fish before putting them in the smoker. Of course I eagerly agreed. When I arrived I was surprised to see quite a number of fish had already been cleaned, and remarked I never thought we’d catch so many fish. He said we really didn’t catch so many. The rest of them came from the police chief. When Romie got home with our fish, the chief was out in his yard. So Romie walked over and told him that someone had given him some fish, and he was going to smoke them; and if the chief ever got some fish he would like to have smoked, he should just let Romie know. Can you believe the chief just happened to have a number of fish someone had just “given” him also? Talk about coincidence! The chief brought the fish over and helped Romie clean them. Romie told him the fish certainly looked like they could have come out of the same “lake” as the ones he had! He told him he would let him know when they came out of the smokehouse. So with my help cleaning the rest, Romie, I, and the game warden had some good-tasting fish. Those were memorable days. Jim michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com ,; 3.1(3+ #(8,6 #,11 774*0(8043 ,,803. (3+ :,38 ,6:0*,7 (01,= (3, 6,;78,6 % /43, (< ## $ .2(0 1 *42 6, ,.0786(8043 5,6 5,6743 5497, /01+6,3 93+,6 =,(67 3708, ,.0786(8043 ,.0786(38 7 (2,7 438(*8 ++6,77 8(8, &05 4+, /43, (< 2(01 6, ,.0786(8043 ,(+103, ,)69(6= 4251,8, 8/07 -462 (3+ -(< 46 2(01 08 (143. ;08/ =496 5(=2,38 84 ## ,.078,6 43103, (8 ;;; 3,;;(774*0(8043 46. 6, ,.0786(8043 ## ,; 3.1(3+ #(8,6 #,11 <54 (6*/ ,78 #,78,63 4=(1 1(>( 43-,6,3*, ,38,6 (61)4649./ (77(*/97,887 6,+08 (6+ !=5, '''''''''' 6,+08 (6+ 92),6 '''''''''''''''''''''''' <506(8043 (8, '''''''''''''''' " 7,*9608= *4+, ''''''' 19 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® JANUARY 2016