oldsparkey said:
that was not a expendishun ..... that was an invading ARMY , or , NAVY depending on how ya look at it.
Friend Chuck,
It had ta be over 20 folks. Gotta be a point where enuff iz enuff, but most a them folks wuz ACC members 'n live purty close by. I reckon they kin paddle in a small group most anytime they want.
I seen a heap a paddlin' spots on Mister Gores web, but that group iz jest plum different. One fella up 'n sez "lower Buffalo this weekend, who wants ta go?" Next thing its 20 folks all figgerin' it aint no better way ta spend the weekend. I bet only a few had ta drive over a hunerd miles.
They git tagether 'n clean up rivers 'n creeks ever now 'n then. They fish, but I seen some a them aint too good at cleanin' fish. Ole Kenny (never went off ta the bodine school fer az I know) put a wire brush on hiz lectric drill ta clean some bream. Well, I'll let Kenny tell it.
regards,
bearridge
paddlin' geezer
******
Setting on Lee Creek yesterday catching a cooler full of green sunfish, my mind was working at warp speed. Man, I love to catch those suckers and even mo love to eat them, but cleaning them is a pain.
You just don't get much satisfaction per fish vs the effort put out. The pile of fish at the end is great, but price per unit is pretty high during the cleaning. The main turd in the punchbowl is scaling the buggers.
All brain cells were firing as I ran through the options. Finally I had it. Use my drill, equipped with the wire brush attachment. All it would take is a delicate touch, a littel finesse and them suckers would be slick as a whistle.
Homeflap and Hal (he was there for the first episode of the new Reno 911 season) were not impressed when I got home. As a matter of fact, neither was Mikey when I bounced the idea off him. Hal, to his benefit, came up with a better idea: use your shop vac. Hmmmmmm.
That sounded mo betta. Homeflap was unimpressed. "Don't you think that someone would have already thought of that if it worked?" NO. Every idea had someone to think of it first. Anyway, Hals idea failed miserably. It sucked a few scales off (just enough to make the flys swarm my shop vac this morning). It also tended to get stuck to the paper I was working on and to the fish. The only highpoint was that it made very obscene noises when attached to the fish. I'll store that information away and use it at a later date.
My idea was even worse. Sadly it turned out just as Chiolino prognosticated. I waited till Hal left and whupped out the drill. Maybe with a little more finesse and a softer touch it could be done, but such are not my forte.
First fish was shot across the shed like a 2X4 four from a table saw. It ended up in spider land underneath my work bench. A broom handle with a nail attached was needed for the extraction.
Second one actually worked for part of one side. Then concentration lapsed and the brush gained a beachhead amongst the ribs. The fish didn't fly away cause I had it secured it to my workmate with two clamps, but it must have flexed, giveing the wire brush a bite on two sides of the fish and torqueing it into a tight spiral.
Mind was willing but the flesh was weak. Bones, sinew and scales gave way into a cyclone of gore. A fishnado. All that was left was a head and a tail with a very conspicuous gap where the body cavity used to be. The missing fish was evenly distributed on me and the shed. The pocket knife worked well for the rest of the fish
-----
Kenny
