Fishing For Scar, by Jacob
From MemoryArchive
Who: Daniel What: Fishing Trip When: Summer Break Where: Papaw's Lake
Fishing For ”Scar”
It was a warm early afternoon and I could hear the dragonflies buzzing around the lake. I had just gotten up from the late birthday party the night before. It was me and my cousin Johnathon out on my Papaw’s lake.
We were on the hunt for catfish but we would take anything we caught, really. Even bluegill would be fine. But catfish would be the ultimate prize. He was going to let me use one of his poles so that if I caught a catfish it wouldn’t break my line. It had a 50 lb. pull line. So I was prepared. Our bait would be artificial stubs that were green and orange. We loaded up our bait and headed out for good fishing.
My papaw has a steel canoe that we use for fishing out of that he lets us use. At first we went over to the center of the pond to try and catch some croppy and bluegill to get warmed up. The canoes edges that were exposed to the trees were getting very hot. It felt like the lake was steaming us like vegetables. We each caught about 2 or 3 croppy. Then we headed over under the tree line.
The tree line was the best place to catch catfish. It was always shady there. The fish just lied there under the water all day long. Just waiting for something to eat, which in this case was our green and orange artificial stubs. The biggest catfish I had ever seen was always there. Its name was “Scar”. It was a he or at least we thought it was. He earned his name from all of the fights he had been in, his scar was just along his right gill, it was a bright white. Whenever he was swimming in the water there was no other fish like him. He had been known to eat other bluegill, sometimes even bass! The only person to ever catch him was our papaw; he was the one who told us all of his experiences with”Scar”. That fish was the ultimate prize in the lake, the trophy fish.
We waited forever for bites on our line, but none ever came. Not even a single bluegill. It was getting quite dark out when all of the sudden we felt bites on both of our lines. Johnathon’s line was just stuck on a large stick, just the same as mine. I looked closer at the giant stick and came to find out that it was “Scar”. As soon as I yelled at Jon that I had “Scar” he almost tipped the canoe coming over to my side to help me tug him in. He was the most powerful fish I had ever tried to pull in. He seemed to know the best ways to escape, or try to. He would swim under the canoe, around the canoe; he was using our own tool against us. It was not so easy.
Finally, we managed to get the fish close enough to put into the net. He was still fighting even though he was already caught. He was humongous. He had to be at least a good 20 inches. We measured him up at 26 ½ inches. Easily the biggest fish I had ever seen in my lifetime. All of the stories papaw had told us were true. As soon as we docked Jon ran inside to get papaw to show him. Even papaw was even impressed with our fishing skills. It was just as beautiful as papaw had described it. All scaly and sparkly even at night, absolutely breath-taking.
No matter how much we wanted to mount it on the wall at his house papaw said no. So we threw our prized possession back in the water. All of the time and strength spent on catching it down the drain. But somehow it felt like the right thing to do. To put “Scar” back to where he came from, his home. As we were walking in toward the house, papaw said, “So what time are you guys coming back tomorrow”. We all just laughed.
