Stories the best parts of fishing

Mike Romine was disappointed Tuesday that we didn’t take the bream fishing trip he had planned.

He mentioned it Saturday when he noted that the moon was almost full. Bream spawn on the full moon, and that’s when you catch the big ones.

On Tuesday, Romine’s boat was dry, and the deck still contained a lot of non-f ishing items. Lake Conway is the place to go to catch big bluegill and redear sunfish, which naturally led to the subject of the big alligator that has been videoed recently at the lake.

By the way, have you noticed that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission changed the billboard at Lake Conway. It used to read, “Craig D. Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir.” That represented the low-water mark of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s penchant for renaming public hunting and fishing areas after themselves. That created an editorial policy at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. If an area’s name is not traditionally attached to a person, the addendum is not considered part of the name.

Now the billboard reads simply,”Go Fishing!”

So, anyway, the Lake Conway alligator sighting evoked memories of alligators at an Arkansas River backwater that Romine, his son Zach Smith and Romine’s fatherin-law Billy Peel used to frequent.

“There was always a bunch of Canada geese out there,” Romine said. “That one night, they got all stirred up and started honking and carrying on. Next thing you know, it sounds like a bomb goes off up there among those geese. They got all upset and started splashing around.”

“Wasn’t too long after that an alligator chugs past with a big goose in its snout, its big ol’ neck all limp and trailing behind,” Smith said.

“That’s why I never liked fishing out there at night,” Romine said. “Too much stuff out there swimming around.”

That prompted Smith to lead us on a merry virtual tour through various other Arkansas River backwaters.

“Dad and I were going up Rector Chute once,” Smith said. “It’s real shallow through there. It’s got a lot of stumps and stuff, so you have to be real careful.”

“I don’t even know if you can still get up there. It might have silted in,” Romine said.

“I don’t know either,” Smith said. “But we’re easing on up through there, and next thing I know …” Romine began laughing. “A rod and reel go flying out the boat!”

Romine was already brushing away tears.

“I’m like, ‘What the …? He just threw a $300 rig in the water!’” Smith said. “I’m like, ‘Dad! What’s your problem?’ You know what he said? He said, ‘A spider was crawling on it.’ A spider!”

“I don’t like them damn things around me,” Romine said, sputtering.

“I picked up a rod and cast it back there and snagged it. Got it back, too” Smith said. “A lot of trouble to go to for a spider if you ask me.”

Romine recalled fishing that same area with Peel. It was extremely hot, and the fishing had been slow all day. And then suddenly, the fishing got very lively. Romine said he had two rods out. A fish hit one line. As Romine picked up that rod, a fish hit the other line and started dragging the rod out of the boat. Romine put down the first rod to save the second rod, but the first rod got pulled overboard.

Romine put down the second rod to try to catch the first rod, but the second rod got pulled overboard, too.”

“Peel was sitting in the back just giving me hell,” Romine said.

Calmly, Romine picked up a third rod and cast. He snagged the line of a lost rod, reeled it in, removed the fish on its line and stowed the rig.

Then, he cast again and snagged the line of the other lost rod. He reeled it in, removed its catfish and stowed it away, too.

“After I put away that second rod, I turned around in my seat, crossed my arms across my chest just like this. I looked straight at Peel and said, ‘How do you like me now?’ ”

A rebuke like that to the irascible Peel was like waving a red cape in front of a bull, but Peel couldn’t work himself into a proper froth because the fish were biting so well.

Unable to keep up with such fast action on two rods, Peel tried to use just one, but Romine badgered him too badly.

“Finally, he just quit fishing altogether and said he was done,” Romine said.