usadeepsouth.com
~~Fishing Day~~
by Jacqueline Brunson
My husband Billy decided one Saturday to take our 5 year old son BJ fishing to Second Mill Pond. Billy’s dad’s land touches the pond, so it was an easy access.
When we got there we walked a ways to find a good opening to the water because it was kinda grown up around there. We found a fair opening that was cleared out enough to fish and proceeded to fix our fishing poles. I sat BJ on an old log and helped Billy with the poles. (I forgot to mention I happened to be 3 months pregnant at the time and didn’t feel my greatest, but I wanted BJ to have some fun.)
Billy got BJ’s pole fixed up and gave it to him.
Out on the water in front of us was a couple fishing in a jon boat. We waved and spoke to them. Billy settled BJ down on the log and gave him his pole with the worm secured to the hook and told him to watch the little white and red ball. Billy said that if the ball went under the water to tell us--then he started working on another pole. I went and sat down against a big tree up on the hill of the bank.
It wasn’t long until BJ started hollering that his ball was gone and he couldn’t pull the line out of the water. Billy was still working on the other pole, so I got up to go see if I could get the line up. We both figured BJ had caught a turtle the way the line was up under all the grasses. Keep in mind BJ was still pulling on the line while I was going toward him.
I was almost to him when the line came loose, sailing out of the water with what looked to me like a foot long snake. Before I could do anything but scream, the “snake” hit me in the side of the face. I turned to run back up the hill, not knowing Billy was kneeling on the ground right behind me. I stepped right in the middle of his back trying to make my escape from this creature.
After saying a few choice words I won’t repeat here, Billy got up to get BJ’s pole. He was stating (strongly) that my snake was not a snake, but a freshwater eel. Well, it looked like a snake to me, and it was long and wiggly . . . and I wasn’t taking any chances.
Needless to say, the folks in the boat were laughing and asking if everything was all right. Billy told them everything was fine; BJ had caught an eel. He cut the line and threw the thing back in the water. Since the eel still had a hook in him, he wasn’t too happy and flopped around a lot, which didn’t make me too happy either.
I was now ready to go, so I went back up and sat down again against the tree. After a while Billy said we should go because the fish weren’t biting that well. I was more than ready to leave. I helped gather the poles and stuff and headed up the hill with BJ coming up behind me.
Well, when I came around the same tree I had been leaning against, I saw a copperhead lying there, red, bell-shaped designs on its back. The snake was about 2 feet long, and he was moving slowly away from the tree. Now the show really began, because I started pitching one helluva fit.
Billy came running up the hill with machete in hand (thank goodness, he brought it) and he came around the tree. He stopped and said, “Damn, if she ain’t right . . . it is a copperhead!”
He proceeded to kill it. I looked at the situation like this: at that particular moment it was the snake or me. I hate snakes and I ain’t particularly fond of eels now either.
Now that boat in the water was rocking so much from the hysterical laughter of the couple that I thought they were going to turn over. I know their fishing day had to be better than mine. The whole way back to our truck I rambled on about snakes and we could have been bit and this and that. I just couldn’t shut up.
My husband has never taken me on another fishing trip. He says I find too much when we go.
BIO: "I have always wanted to write," says Brunson, "but have never had any training. I don't know fancy words and sometimes don't know how to put thoughts down on paper to make the story sound right. I just write from the heart and from my imagination. I have a vivid one! I love fantasy--a big interest of mine--but I also love to read about ancient history and such."
"About me," she continues, "I am just getting ready to turn 43 years old this coming Sunday, and you have given me my first present by putting my story at USADEEPSOUTH. Thank you! I have been married since 1979 and have a son 21 years old and a daughter 15 years old. I am a territory manager working in grocery stores resetting sections. I still have dreams though of writing and doing something else with my life. I'm not getting older, just getting more fine tuned. I have a saying I like:
May your heart be light, and
Your dreams always in sight.
Thank you, USADEEPSOUTH and readers . . . "
Write Jacqueline Brunson by e-mailing: maubast@sc.rr.com
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