Thanks for the fish article, ART.
When we were kids, a group of us used to go fishing in a little hole a few miles from where we lived.
It would take a couple hours walking just to get there.
We walked most of it on some old train tracks and had to cross a trestle bridge like the one in Stand By Me.
Luckily for us, it was a discontinued track. I took about ten minutes just to go about 50ft. across. (I couldn't not look down.)
All in all, it was a fun hike.
By the time we got there we would be ready for a swim.
I don't remember who discovered the place, but it had a perfect spot to swim in and still not disturb the fish in the main part of the pond.
While fishing, we would catch perch and catfish and if I'm not mistaken a few bass, as well.
Well, this one time we went, I caught a few nice-looking perch and one catfish about 7 or 8 inches long.
Usually we cooked what we caught when we got back home, so we put the fish on stringers to take with us.
On the way back, we were having to step over fallen limbs and other debris so naturally we were looking down and watching where we were going.
I was holding my stringer up and away to my side and had just stepped over a branch when I felt my fish flop on the line.
I looked down in time to see the catfish impale itself in my hand with one of its fins.
Only, I thought it stuck me with one of its whiskers.
To this day, that's what I see in my mind.
Logically, I know that the whiskers aren't stiff and strong enough to go through you, but it's what I recall seeing.
I guess it was the trauma of it all.
They had to tackle me on the ground to get it out of my hand, I was carrying on so.
I had to get a tetanus shot when I got home. My mom's a nurse and she's got connections.
I don't know what happened to the fish.
