Fishing Adventures with Mark-017 by Mark Alewine Music/GGSS Podcast published on 2022-10-20T17:28:16Z Do you need a good laugh today (or at least a big smile)? Stay tuned for a fun song and some funny fishing stories. Story #1 Back in the mid 80s I had a friend at college named Reed who loved to fish as much as I did. One day he told me about catfishing on the St. Croix River and how people were catching big ones all the time. He called it brainless fishing and he was so excited and he got me all pumped up for it. He closed out the conversation saying, “hurry man, they’re bitin.’” I was so excited! Big catfish aren’t good for eating but they are really really fun for catching because they’re super strong. The best time is in the evening after dark. Now being from the south, catfish was something that we caught all the time. Smaller catfish, 2 pounds or so, are pretty good to eat but this was strictly big catfish fishing we’re talking about now and we were gonna come back with some real tales. Reed and I bought some chicken livers and gizzards, because that’s what catfish like, and got to our fishing spot around 830pm. We were practically running from the car to the river to catch these big catfish. We were so excited and we were almost screaming with excitement like little kids on Christmas morning. We got down there and Baited our hooks and cast them as far as we could under this bridge on the Saint Croix, the perfect spot for big catfish. And we waited. Now, The stories that we had heard about these big catfish were pretty incredible. I can’t even remember where he heard the stories or read about them but we knew that they were coming. We talked and laughed and waited. We glanced at our rods that were propped up against our tackle boxes so that we could see the end of the rod tip move when we got a bite. And we talk some more and then we reeled in our lines because we knew that somehow the fish had taken off our bait. We were ready to bait our hooks again but when we had reeled all the way in, our liver and other chicken parts were still there. So we cast out again and put our rods up against the tackle boxes so the rod tip was high so we could see that rod tip move when the big fish hit. And we talked some more and glanced some more in reeled in again to make sure the fish hadn’t taken our bait. The bait was still there so we cast out again and talked and glanced and reeled in to check our bait. Two hours or so had past and we realized there were no fish to be caught tonight. We’d been skunked but at least no one was around to see us tuck our tails and go back home. Story #2 Fast forward several months and we are in Puerto Rico doing our internship together. Reed found a fishing charter somewhere off the East Coast which was only about 45 minutes away. He told me this charter catches the most and the biggest fish on this side of the island. It didn’t cost very much and all you had to do was bring your own rod. And then he said, “let’s hurry man, they’re bitin.’” We got everything lined up. I grabbed my rod and a little bit of tackle. I asked Reed if we needed to bring sinkers. He said they provided everything but the pole. I said “are you sure” and he said “Yep. Let’s go!” So off we went along with 2 other friends who were fluent in Spanish to the east side of the island. Seven guys were waiting for us there. One of our Spanish-speaking friends started talking with them in Spanish working out the details. We agreed on a price, gathered what little bit of stuff that we had brought and started walking to the boat. As we walked away, we heard these guys mumbling a little bit but Reed and I didn’t know what they were saying. We get down to the boat and now it’s just the Spanish-speaking captain of the boat and us 4. And off we went. And Reed and I were giggling like two elementary school kids on the last day of school. We drove for about 30 minutes. When we arrived at the spot, the captain brought...