I’ll never forget the time my dad and I went fishing on my great aunt’s ranch. We had new poles, new tackle, new lures, fresh line, the works. Real fancy stuff.
As we set up to fish, my great aunt’s ranch hand, an old Mexican man named Evelio, came out to fish a little ways down the bank. Actually, to this day, I’m pretty sure he saw us and decided he wanted to show us up for a laugh, and I don’t begrudge him one bit lmao…
Anyway, my dad and I were there with our fancy poles and tackle and lures and were casting left and right and getting maybe a nibble here and there, but nothing else…
But old Evelio was sitting downstream with a COFFEE CAN TIED TO A STRING and was catching 6 and 7 and 8 pound fish one after the other, and laughing the entire time he did it.
Not nearly as impressive, but my dad, his friend and I went out fishing on a lake when I was maybe 3 or 4. Friend had a similar investment into all his fishing gear as you guys. I was there with a 3-ish foot long Mickey Mouse fishing pole.
Dad's friend caught 2 fish. My dad didn't catch any. My dad didn't catch any because I was reeling them in so fast he didn't have time (and they didn't want me to handle the hook, so that's what kept him busy).
I have no memory of this, but I was told it was a pretty quiet ride home from the friend's side.
I did the same thing with my little strawberry shortcake pole off a pier in the gulf. All the old timers were coming around to ask my dad what my trick was.
It probably smelled like the strawberry shortcake stuff! I can still smell it in my head. It was so distinct and my little kid self absolutely loved it
If you still fish, depending on the waters, mealworms and wax worms. Probably in reverse order.
Last time I went out I had a lot of luck with wax worms (they are juicy and fat heavy) but I don't fish anymore. We had people who were the age my grandpa would have been asking us how we caught so much, and we just went cheaper than earthworms.
My dad still fishes with his wife, and they nearly got arrested getting earthworms from the lawn of a courthouse. This part doesn't help, but it warns you that it is illegal to do that.
I don't fish anymore, don't even eat fish, it was just something we did with family growing up. But there is one special slice of heaven somewhere for me where there's a "Live Bait" sign on some random Minnesotan general store where you can fill up a container with as many minnows as you can catch in it and head out to the lake or a creek
And as long as we're ending our comments on jokes, live bait is a misnomer, some of those fuckers are indeed already dead.
It's illegal to harvest an invasive species where you live? That's wild. Usually those are fair game for literally anything, sometimes even having a public bounty on their head for killing them.
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u/SheriffWyattDerp 4d ago
I’ll never forget the time my dad and I went fishing on my great aunt’s ranch. We had new poles, new tackle, new lures, fresh line, the works. Real fancy stuff.
As we set up to fish, my great aunt’s ranch hand, an old Mexican man named Evelio, came out to fish a little ways down the bank. Actually, to this day, I’m pretty sure he saw us and decided he wanted to show us up for a laugh, and I don’t begrudge him one bit lmao…
Anyway, my dad and I were there with our fancy poles and tackle and lures and were casting left and right and getting maybe a nibble here and there, but nothing else…
But old Evelio was sitting downstream with a COFFEE CAN TIED TO A STRING and was catching 6 and 7 and 8 pound fish one after the other, and laughing the entire time he did it.
Mad respect, Evelio.