Several times during the year, work on the family farm/ranch slowed down to the point that we could set trot lines in the river and harvest channel catfish. Most were in the 2-5 lb range. We kept the larger ones, released the rest. Occasionally, we would catch a 15-25 lb flathead catfish. Not uncommon to bring in 20 keepers in the morning and another 20 at night. The flat bottom boat we used leaked, so we would just take the fish off the hook and drop them in the boat.
One day, we caught a flathead that weighed about 50 lbs - a big fish. As usual, Uncle Walter hauled him in the boat and turned him loose. While he was checking the next hook, the fish bit down on Walters’s bare calf and thrashed around until we scrambled the fish’s brain with a piece of baling wire.
A catfish that size has lots of needle thin, sharp teeth and carry an array of germs. In no time, the fish bite looked like the lips at the start of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. You could not have used red lipstick and drawn a better set of lips.
Uncle Walter tried to ignore it, but it started swelling and itching real bad, so he went to the local VA hospital for a penicillin shot. By the time he got there, the “lips” were really puffy and very red.
The Doc took a look, then asked “How the hell did you do this?” So Walter told him “a fish bit me,” then the Doc said, “Wait right here.” The Doc came back about 10 minutes later with 2 more Docs and a couple of nurses and said, “Tell them about your leg, because no one is ever going to believe me.”
Uncle Walter’s catfish lip marks healed, and the skin turned white, so he had that fish’s kiss on his leg till he died.
One day, we caught a flathead that weighed about 50 lbs - a big fish. As usual, Uncle Walter hauled him in the boat and turned him loose. While he was checking the next hook, the fish bit down on Walters’s bare calf and thrashed around until we scrambled the fish’s brain with a piece of baling wire.
A catfish that size has lots of needle thin, sharp teeth and carry an array of germs. In no time, the fish bite looked like the lips at the start of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. You could not have used red lipstick and drawn a better set of lips.
Uncle Walter tried to ignore it, but it started swelling and itching real bad, so he went to the local VA hospital for a penicillin shot. By the time he got there, the “lips” were really puffy and very red.
The Doc took a look, then asked “How the hell did you do this?” So Walter told him “a fish bit me,” then the Doc said, “Wait right here.” The Doc came back about 10 minutes later with 2 more Docs and a couple of nurses and said, “Tell them about your leg, because no one is ever going to believe me.”
Uncle Walter’s catfish lip marks healed, and the skin turned white, so he had that fish’s kiss on his leg till he died.
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