anyone: I just knew the moment it happened that this thread was the first place I had to head after what happened to me this afternoon. We live in the country in a beautiful five acres of heavy woodland. Of course, along with the country life goes having a septic system (a good and a bad side to everything, it seems). I don't spend a heck of a lot of time messing with the system; doesn't hold a lot of appeal to me, I guess. This afternoon the septic guy came around with the big tank truck we call the "honey truck" to do the biannual clean out. This is always accompanied by lots of jokes along the line of "Hey, kids! Now you know where peanut butter comes from!" and "Hey kids! I'll bet you never knew how chocolate-covered peanuts/raisins/corn (etc.)was made, did ya'?", followed by shrieks and groans. Always a festive event!
Well, today I got a little closer to all the action than I usually do and I peered down into the hole where the septic fella' had that long hose suckin' up the gunk. To my astonishment, I saw fish in there. That's right; fish!!! Whoa, I'm thinking; I gotta check this out.
After the septic man leaves a sorta' idle over in the direction of the pump-out hole and take a closer look see. Yep! Fish; no doubt about it. I consider some tackle options but from the looks of things I decide to just take a swipe with my net and pull some up. I'm still not too certain about what I'm doing now and what I'm doin' next so I keep the net at arms length into the garage. I wanna' know what I'm gettin' into. I mean, this might be some kinda' minature offshoot of the half man/half fish anyone saw, I'm thinkin'.
It seems to me the safest way to try an unfamiliar species is to go for a thick, extra spicy breading. With that and a little ranch dressing, anything tastes, uh, OK, anyway. I dump the little critters straight from the net into the coffee can of batter flour I keep with my camping gear; always on the ready. After a few tosses in the can, I dumped the fish into the deep fryer and hollered across the middle woods to my neighbor to stop over for some fresh fillets. As you can imagine, he parked his lawn tractor on the double and headed straight over; I mean, who wouldn't? Fresh fillets are serious business and a person's gotta' have a sense of priorities in life, right?
"Well, how do they taste, Keith?", I asked as I politely passed the first batch to him for a sampler. "#$!@!#, they taste like SH!T!!! What kinda' fish did you say these were?", he asked while he worked his tongue around the sides of his mouth and teeth. Judging from his not-so-good reaction, I decided to wait for fish until I knew FOR SURE, what I was eating.
So, anyone, I come to you and the thread for help. Does anyone know what kind of little brown, round, squishy, eyeless fish float around on the surface down in a septic holding basin? Any help at all would be much appreciated.
From one fish story teller to the next I say, TIA. ...Tim
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