Trotlining - Cajun Style
I trotlined all the time and was using the bait my grandfathers taught me
By Tim Roberts
Posted Monday, June 20, 2005
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One of the fondest memories I have is years ago when I was a soldier station at Fort Polk, I trotlined all the time and was using the bait my grandfathers taught me, which is now the FNF Catfish Cutbait.
I had a 25 hook trotline crossing a bayou with it weighed in the middle. On the first run, we had twenty five channel cats, nothing large just eaters, on the second run on one end we had 5, on the other none, but the last two hooks had snagged on something. Two hours later we ran them again, it was dark so we had the lights going, on the snagged end the was a big set of red eyes on the surface.
Being young, I grabbed the line and pulled it tight, walked the boat to the end and found it snagged again, rolled up the shirt sleeves, reach in that black water started yanking, pulling and trying to free it. I did not smoke at the time, so I set there a minute and rested.
Went to reach in again and a 10 foot gator surfaced, scared the stuffing out of me. I had it hooked in the throat. We captured it and contacted the zoo in Alexandria, La and they came and got it, removed the hook and took it back to the zoo. The gator was named
SGT. Hook, they gave a nice pool and he lived for years. Well for Me, I started smoking soon after.
This fish story written by Texas Fishing Guide Tim Roberts - Visit Tim's Fish-N-Friends website
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