Since I have spent a fair amount of time over the last 30 years or so pursuing one specie of fish or another, it is only expected that I would have an ‘adventure’ or two along the waterways.
In the early 80’s we lived in southwest KY. It was there that I came to be friends with the first “real fisherman” that I had the privilege of fishing with. What I mean by “real fisherman” is one of those individuals who not only loved to fish, but is very good at it and spent most of his time ‘on the job’. This fellow was a lot older than I was, but we hit it off perfectly. He has been dead now for a number of years, but I think of him often and cherish the fishing outings we shared.
There was one element to out trips that seemed to be a given. Every time me and Kenneth got into a boat on a body of water, we could count on a rainstorm. He blamed the phenomenon on me, saying that I was a “jinx” and could bring rain during a drought by simply going fishing. Of course, I would counter that it was ‘him’ since it always rained when I went fishing with him, never mind that I did not fish with anyone else.
On one such outing we had gone to the Barren River Reservoir in Kenneth’s johnboat. We had about a 5 horse motor on this little boat, which was just fine for the narrow channel up which we were traveling to the spot we wanted to lay out our trotlines. That was his favorite method of fishing for channel cats and it was legal at that time in KY, I suppose it still is, but in MN we have no such ‘freedom’, which is probably good or we would surely have a lot less fish, because a trotline does its job well if properly set and baited.
We went what must have been 3 or 4 miles up the Reservoir when, out of a clear sky, came a thunderstorm. Of course we got wet, but nothing to be concerned about. We went ahead and laid out a few trotlines and baited them. The plan was to go back to the landing and nap until around 10 PM and then run the lines taking any fish we had. Then we would re-bait our hooks and come back the next morning to check them again and pull them in.
Our plan did not work that way due to a mishap with the starter rope on the motor. After we had gotten all the lines out, Kenneth pulled on the starter rope and it came clean out in his hand! No way to start the motor, so we thought at the time. Now I plead ignorance because it was not my motor and I had never owned a boat motor, what we learned later was all to Kenneth’s embarrassment, not mine. At the time it was already nearing dark and we had to cover about 4 miles of water to get to the landing. No oars, only one little “mini” paddle about 3 feet long. We took turns sitting in the bow of the boat and pulling ourselves along the best we could. It was a long pull. Naturally it got dark very quick, but to our good fortune there was a security light at the landing, so we kept the boat pointed that direction and kept pulling ourselves with that little paddle.
We were not able to run the lines that night, so we made the trip back home. I did not have time to go back with Kenneth the next morning to run the lines after he got a new rope in the motor. Our lines however, did their job. There was a half dozen or so channel cats hooked and one of them was over 5 lbs.
After Kenneth got back, naturally he called me with the report on our success. Then he laughed and told me that we were surely a couple of fools for having pulled ourselves miles with that little stub of a paddle, all due to “ignorance”. Then he explained to me that all we would have had to do was pull the cover off the motor and we could have started it with any piece of rope. All boat motors have a knot catch so that you can wrap a rope around the starter shaft and start them even if the pull rope comes out. At least all small outboard motors have such a emergency shaft. I told him that my ignorance was ‘excusable’, but his was evidently from old age and senility!
Incidentally, for those who have never used a trotline, it is a most convenient manner for taking fish, especially in a situation where you don’t have time to fish or in a survival emergency. The makeup of a trotline is this. The mainline can be as long as you want, but ours were around 100’ in length. Most often we would tie one end off on shore to a tree root or some other solid anchor.
Then we would string it out to where we wanted the other end to be. Drop a cement block down to the bottom of the lake attached to another rope, with a gallon milk jug tied on at the surface to hold our rope and line up off the bottom. To this line we would go down to whatever depth we wanted, usually a couple feet below the water, to miss “most” boat motor props in case a boat passed over our trotline. At this point we would tie off our main trotline, whose other end was on shore and tighten up the slack, leaving just enough leeway that we could pull the line up to the side of the boat. Once the main line was in place, we had prepared ahead of time about 50 hooks on short lines. These we would have made up in advance and hang them on the top lip of a 5 gallon bucket so that they would not be in a big tangled mess.
Then we would simply tie, very securely, each of the hooks onto the main line about 2 feet apart and in such a manner to prevent them from slipping on the main line or the fish from being about to reach the next hook and make one “big mess”. As we tied on the hooks we would put a live minnow or a chunk of chicken liver, or gizzard, on the hooks for bait. As catfish will come close to the surface in calm water at night to feed, it was an almost perfect set up.
Now Kenneth was not a ’wealthy’ person. So we never even thought of purchasing all those minnows. He knew every small creek within 25 miles of his home and it was there he would go to collect his bait. With a one man seine net attached to two 4’ sticks and a pair of hip waders he would go out into a deeper hole in the creeks and corner a mess of bait in short order. It was remarkable to watch an ‘expert’ dip minnows from a creek. I have tried it, but with limited success, partly because MN does not have the kind of small cricks that baitfish can live in year around like KY. Here any small stream will generally ‘winter kill’, so bait must be taken from lakes or larger rivers. A different process entirely.
It was also Kenneth who taught me the “fine art” of how to properly deep fry fish. His method was simple but almost perfect. His fish batter he would make with a mixture of white corn meal and flour (50/50), adding only salt and pepper. Then he would drop his fillets into bread-bag and shake them up so that there was a good even coating of batter. Then he would wait until his deep fryer, which was filled with vegetable oil, was “smoking hot”, that is the real secret to frying fish. The ideal is that you want the hot oil to immediately seal the outside fish batter and thus prevent the fish from becoming “greasy” which it surely will with low heat, trust me. I realize most people reading this blog will know these details, but in case there are some who don’t I include them. I hate to see “good meat” wasted from poor cooking habits!
Not only did Kenneth use trot lines to catch fish, he also used them for snapping turtles. I don’t know which gave him a bigger thrill, a big fish on his line or a monster snapping turtle. He was also expert at butchering and cooking turtle meat, which, if made properly, is one of the best meats one can enjoy. Unfortunately I cannot remember in detail his method of frying turtle, but I do know, from experience, if not done right it will be like eating shoe leather, but his turtle was as tender as a young chicken, too bad I did not pay close attention to his cooking of turtle meat.
To close this blog, before it rambles on and on, I remember one piece of advice Kenneth always gave me. He would say, “Ernie, if ‘you’ are going fishing, you better have a raincoat and take an extra pull rope for your motor.” Yes Kenneth, I remember your advice.
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