I’d ask the question of anyone this time of year, but I shouldn’t have asked it of him. I simply said, “Is yer boat ready for the opener?” Oh the eye rolls, then the look like, what are you nuts? And then he loudly orates, “Of course it’s ready, it’s been ready since last fall when you and I winterized it, you get’n Alzheimer’s or something?” Boy, he’s in a mood.
Thinking I’d try a different train of less offensive thought, I said, “All the minnows I trapped so far this spring are in two different live wells hanging off the metal bridge, just like you like em, your’s on the left, mine on the right.”
He responds with, “I suppose you’ve been culling them minnows, oh I know you have, but this week, I better see plenty of red tail shiners in mine, last opener, you didn’t quite split em fair as I saw it.”
And for a change he was right. I figured, if I had to tend the traps every day, why not spike my minnow bucket.
But if anyone was gonna catch me at taking advantage of the minnows I give him for free, I figured, why not me. So I did, last year, but I haven’t so far this season, and it being so fresh, I’m not worried, this year I tidied up his minnows even with mine.
Not feeling like asking him anything more, I said, “Well good luck on the opener,” he said, “I don’t need no luck, I need some weather, some minnows, and some time.”
I thought, well heck, so do the rest of us.
--The trout whisperer
