Caught a warm spell and decided to go fishing for a change. Also had a warm rain so there were night-crawlers on the blacktop driveway for easy picking – so I had an easy and free supply of bait.
Packed a sandwich and some “libations” and headed for the shore of Derickson Creek. It was over on the Delaware State Park side near a marshy area. I set up my tackle and proceeded to feed the fish a nice supply of earth worms – I’m not really much of a fisherman – and soon ran out of my supply of bait.
I figured I would enjoy some lunch and a drink while figuring what I would do with the rest of the afternoon – when I spied a cottonmouth (water moccasin) snake nearby with a small frog in its mouth.
Well, frogs also make good bait and I knew the snake couldn’t bite me with a frog in its mouth. So I quickly grabbed the snake close behind its head, deftly pulled the frog from its mouth and tossed it into the bait can. The problem then was – how to let go of the snake without letting it bite me. Hmmm…I grabbed my bottle of Makers Mark (good Kentucky bourbon) and poured a good sized shot down the snake’s throat. We’ll he rolled his eyes and went limp – so I released it back into the marsh. Problem solved.
I baited the hook and tried to feed the frog to the fish. But, being larger and tougher than a worm, the frog lasted quite a while and I began to get some serious nibbles on the line. But all of a sudden I felt a nudging/bumping on my leg. Wouldn’t ya know – that dang snake was back – with two more frogs.
(Sorry 🙂Â