The Final Fishing Trip

By now you know that my sister Nita is an Avid Fisher-woman.  I think she has always been that way.  I was the one who learned to sew and crochet as a child often called Suzy Homemaker and she was the one who would grab her fishing pole to try to catch dinner (and would later learn to cook it quiet well too) or dig a pork chop bone out of the dog's throat.  I'd go to the drag races with Dad and Michael and she'd play football or soccer with the boys in the hood.  As far back as I can remember she's always jumped at the chance to go fishing though. 

Here she was just a few weeks ago in the Gulf of Mexico out looking for tar balls fishing with her work buddies.

On this trip she was teaching people to fish.

Stinky shot!  This is Michael's dog Stinky, who has no problem with bones, but Nita did trim her nails before we left the ranch.

The War Wagon (5,000 points if you can tell me where Michael came up with the name for this vehicle) our trusty ride while we are at the ranch.

Our trusty vessel!  (5 Millllllion points if you can tell me what movie this phrase came from: "Don't crack up my vessel on them rocks!"  Family members are ineligible to win this prize.  OH Craps!  NITA.... We forgot to go back and do a haul out!  Now when we go back we'll have to bail her out again and scrub her down!!!!  Craps, craps, double craps..... )

DISCLAIMER:  Beyond this point there be monsters.  No... that's not right.  Beyond this point there be some pretty yucky pictures. If you are the least bit squeamish you may not want to look at them.
Ok, you've been warned....

There we were, it was our last day at the ranch.  Nita and I get up early to have our coffee out by the pool.  It's barely day light, it's nice and calm, not a breath of wind yet.  We're discussing what we'll do our last day.  Of course Nita is going down to the pond like she's done every morning.  I'm wondering if it will get too hot before Di and I get around to doing yoga on the pool deck.  Then there is discussion on what we'll have for breakfast, just fruit or maybe Michael will make bacon and egg burritos with lots of chilies.  While we're at it we discuss what we'll have for lunch.  Michael and Di may have errands to run in town, we could be left on our own to pillage the fridge.  The possibilities are endless when you are on vacation.

Then she started.  It wasn't really begging or pleading for me to go to the pond with her.  It was more like selling the idea.  "It's very calm out there. We'll just float.  You can take your book there was no way I was taking my copy of The Spice Necklace!  I had to order that and wait weeks for it to get here.  You can take your knitting yeah right and have everything smell like fish when I get home.  What if I dropped a needle and fell overboard trying to retrieve it and got snagged in all the moss and grass in the pond?  You can get some really nice sun out there!"  "OK, I'll go!"

So we load up the Tahoe, and head to the pondS.  We stopped at the little pond first, she didn't catch anything there so we moved on to the bigger pond.  We cleared the vessel of all the spiders and bugs that climb aboard at night, wiped the dew off the seats, loaded the tackle gear and pole in, our bag of cameras, water bottles and sunscreen and goodies I'm surprised we didn't have a radio, picnic basket, play pen, etc. etc. and we were off.

Nita made a couple of casts into some areas where we could see the smaller 6 to 8 inch bass swimming in the calm clear water.  She was not using rubber worms this morning like she usually does, she was fishing top water because it was so calm.  The water was like a mirror, I could feel the sun reflecting onto my face... I put my visor on.

Nita started warning me of the dangers of using a Top Water lure, "be ready to duck if I have to jerk back really hard to set the hook.  If it doesn't set it could fly back and hook us!"   Oh my gosh!  I had no idea I was going to have this much fun in such a small boat!  I was already trying to pedal and steer to keep her in the correct direction and I had an oar between my legs.  Let's not leave the oar behind, we may need it....  I still can't imagine what we were going to use it for, it's a pedal boat.  Oh well...

Then it happens, she gets a bite!  She's got him!  She's reeling him in... "he's not that big... hung up in the moss."

Nita pulls this little fish up, clears all the moss and grass off him.  He's only about 8 inches long at the most.

Photo opp....  Nita proceeds to remove the lure from the fish.  Correction, this is not the fish.  This is the preceding fish, the second fish is where all the action started.  He was not quiet as big as this one.  Notice what she's holding in her right hand. 

Let me back up a bit. COMMERCIAL BREAK: For those of you who are not fishermen or don't really care about fishing.  This is what a Top Water lure looks like.  Nita was using one that was black and had little white markings on the sides and looked like a Dia de los Muertos lure.  It did have two sets of treble hooks on it, positioned just like on this lure.

When the fish attacks the lure it may chase it down and bite at the lure from the tail end and get caught by the hooks on the end or it could strike from down below 'Jaws style' and get snagged by the belly hooks.  The problem lies with all the extra hooks.  Don't forget to get your own Zebco Dia de los Muertos lure at Wal-Mart or any neighborhood fishing shop.  They really really work!  Now back to the show...

This is where Fate comes in.  Fate... Karma.... what ever you want to call her this morning.  She's going to show up and you better be wearing you lucky shoes we'd left our flip flops on the dock and maybe your brown trousers. 

Nita starts telling me how you have to be VERY careful when removing a small fish from a lure like this... because that little fish can flip around and those extra hooks can get you.  OK... from Nita's mouth to the fish's ears yeah fish have ears! We now have proof.

WARNING!!!!!  NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!!!!!  LOOK AWAY!!! YOU MAY THINK IT'S HIDEOUS!!!!

Yeah... that little fish did a major wiggle and WHAM those spare hooks on the tail end of the lure dug right into Nita's hand.

Fate = she wasn't alone out on the pond this morning!  I don't know how she would have managed to get that fish off the hook.  Oh yes!  At one point Nita and the fish were both on the hook together and still connected to the fishing pole!  I can't even remember how she was holding the fish but I had to get the needle nose pliers cut the line and remove the hook from the fish all the while trying not to rip her hand. Somewhere out there is a little fish with a good sized hole in the side of his face, poor little guy.  Better the fish than Nita's hand.  I'm not gentle with the needle nose pliers.

We drove back to the house because the hooks were buried in past the barbs.  We were going to need some help to remove this.  Michael probably had some Lidocaine and a scalpel, he could get this out, after all he's a rancher, he does these kinds of things all the time.  I just kept thinking how would she have docked the vessel, managed to climb out, tie up the boat, get all the gear.....  yeah, fate, karma, someone watching over her....  ME!

Back at the ranch house, leaning beside the stove where Michael and Di were making breakfast., Di was in disbelief  and thought Nita was joking when she asked for Lidocaine and a scalpel as we walked in, but quickly went into the heebees when she realized this wasn't a joke. We quickly learned that Michael's Lidocaine had gone bad!

Option 2, call Alfred, a long time since elementary school friend and Michael's Vet.  Alfred could take them out and wouldn't even charge a dime to do it.  Who likes having unexpected expenses on a vacation?  Not us!

So we wait on Alfred's return call, it was early yet and he wasn't at the clinic or answering his phone, probably out feeding his livestock or having breakfast at his wife's restaurant.

See... Dia de los Muertos!  Michael decided we should remove the lure so that the weight of the lure didn't rip her hand .  We'd already put a cork on the other hooks to keep them from snagging on something.  Don't you just love Michael's tools for operating?  I guess he's more prepared for larger patients.   Maybe cutting it loose wasn't such a good idea, this was the only time Nita let out any kind of yelp during the whole thing.  Yes, she had a few colorful words when the hook landed in her hand... something about some poor guy's mother or maybe that's what she was calling the fish.  But when Mikey cut that hook loose Nita's mouth went into overdrive.  It was a good thing Mom wasn't there with her Lava Soap to wash her mouth out.

We started thinking that maybe Alfred wasn't even in the clinic today.  Sometimes he goes to Odessa to the remote clinic.  Option 3:   Drive on over to Colorado City to the hospital to have the hooks cut out.  Yeah, she drove, she said it helped to keep her mind off it.

Seeing as there's a lake in Colorado City the ER there sees this affliction from time to time.  This was just routine to them, the only difference was that it was a Friday morning and not a Saturday or Sunday.

Yeah we're a weird family.... I'm taking pictures of the whole thing and Nita takes my glasses away from me so she can supervise the procedure. I don't think they have ever had people like us before and may never again.

She tells the doctor, "You're going to have to cut them out."  The Doctor started telling her that the Lidocaine would hurt her worse than it was going to hurt him.... yeah what ever. What's that saying about he who laughs last, laughs like a jack-ass.  Lidocaine doesn't bother Nita, she's a harbor chic!  The ER staff couldn't believe how tough she was.

 I'll save you a lot of trouble here.  I think I took this shot about 6 or 7 times. The Dr trying to push the hook through her hand to grab the point and pull it out.  Every time he'd push I'd snap a picture, hoping to get a shot of the hook coming through.  This is when they realized how tough she was, she has tough hide.  They also decided she knew what she was talking about when she said "you need to get a 15 blade and cut it."

Enter the 15 blade and the tiny incision.  Whoops, "too tiny... cut it again" she advised.

This commercial break is brought to you by Virginia Slims....  she's going to need one.  Supervising surgery is hard work.

All out!  They had to cut both hooks out and it left 4 tiny holes that looked like snake bites.  No stitches.  It was wrapped and we were sent on our way in only 30 minutes.  The best time to go to the ER in Colorado City, TX is Friday morning, before the amateurs wake up.

Sad news was....  no getting it wet for 24 hours.  That meant no fishing the rest of the day.

Every great fishing trip has to have a story, and if you don't have a witness  take your sister or someone then it didn't really happen, unless you go to the ER and have a bill to prove it.

  Have a great week!