Get The Net

Ol Darv and I were heading for the mountains to try and catch a stringer full of small mouths and bluegills. We had decided to take a different route to our destination in hopes of discovering some new sites. Halfway through our 4-hour trek, I saw an old sign, and in big letters it said, “Trout Ponds, No limit, No license required”. I had always wondered about these places. So I applied some brake and we pulled into the parking lot. There was no one else around except an old man asleep in the booth where you pay for your fish. I grabbed my ultra light pole, banged on the booth, waking the old man. He said, you have to keep all you catch, here’s a net and a five-gallon bucket. Try the lower of three ponds; it has the bigger fish in it. The price is eighteen cents an inch, anything under nine inches is free.
I couldn’t wait; each pond was about fifty yards long. I made my way to the third pond. Hooked up my favorite tender tube and gave it a sling. It no sooner hit the water, and BAM I had on a 24 incher, I yelled for Ol Darv to get the net; he scooped that fish up and in the process of doing so, he scooped up two more. Darv!! I said, you’re costing me money, as he dumped all three fish into the bucket. Ol Darv said, the old man said we had to keep all we caught; he didn’t say how we were to catch them. I fixed my bait and tossed it toward the deep end and BAM, I had another big one on. I yelled, get the net. Ol Darv scooped up that fish and two more. Darv!! I said, that’s six fish and I only caught two. He was too busy laughing. I tossed in one more time and again the fight was on. Only this time, I didn’t want any part of Ol Darv or that net. He was chasing me around that pond yelling, “I’ll get him, I’ll get him”, and I was yelling “get away from me with that net”. I am not sure if he gave up or I out ran him. But he finally quit. I wrestled my fish up into the bucket, turned around to see Ol Darv on his hands and knees scooping fish out of the pond with the net and tossing them up on the bank. I said, WHAT ARE YOU DOING, we’re going to get arrested. He laughed and said he was trying to get a real big one but these others kept getting into the net. About that time his foot hit the bucket and over it went. Fish were flopping everywhere. I grabbed some fish, and the others flopped back into the water. Ol Darv said, see now I'm saving you money. Ol Darv said, looky here at what I got, and he scooped a 36-inch rainbow trout up on the bank. As soon as that fish hit the grass it started floppin and every time Ol Darv would slap his hand down on it, it would shoot out across the grass. He was crawling after it and the third time he hit that fish it went back into the water with a SPLASH. I think that fish broke Ol Darv's heart by the look on his face. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t speak. Ol Darv said he was done fishing for today. We loaded up our stuff and paid the man. Somehow we still managed to have eleven fish for a grand total of thirty-eight dollars. Ol Darv still talks about the big one that got away. I keep telling him it’s not fishing, it’s scooping. He says it’s all in the terminology, catching is catching.
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