A few years ago my best friend’s dad underwent a double knee replacement and so I swung by the house one afternoon to say hello, see how he was doing, have a chat, etc. It was just a couple of days after the surgery so he was totally whacked out on pain meds, which made for quite a few interesting conversations.
At one point he told me that as soon as he was healed up and back on his feet that he was going back to school to get his doctorate. Being an educated man, I didn’t think too much of this notion. That is until he told me what he was going to study.
“I am going to write my doctoral thesis on why some people can catch fish and other people can’t,” he said. He went on to tell me all about his childhood mate and how they used to fish together on the river. Same rod, same reel, same bait, same hole. His friend always caught fish and he never did. Clearly this childhood scar stuck with him over the course of his lifetime.
There’s something about fishing that makes the most rational people turn into mini witch doctors. The only pastime that fosters more superstition is playing Bingo at a smoke-filled V.F.W. hall. The list of fishing superstitions and taboos is exhaustive, wear the right hat, spit on your worm, throw back your first catch of the day for good luck…in the superstitious South you can find at least 50 different supernatural tricks specifically for hooking a catfish. Motor oil on your hook, anyone?
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