My friend Dennis sure knows how to catch catfish.
He’s perfected a rudimentary technique called jug-fishing. It all starts with a pair of empty laundry detergent containers. He fills one with sand, and leaves the other full of air. Then he ties the tag ends of forty feet of heavy, black, braided line to each jug. A few feet up from the sand-filled jug he ties four feet of line and a heavy hook. He repeats the process a few more feet up the line. He baits the hooks with small sunfish, throws the whole rig overboard on a shallow, windswept flat, and then he goes fishing for a while. When he returns a few hours later, sometimes he’ll hit the jackpot.
All in all it’s a pretty sweet setup. He recycles the jugs, he gets the thrill of hauling in the fish, and he donates the fillets to a homeless shelter in town.
It’s a win for all involved – except, I suppose, for the sunnies and catfish.