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Episode 4
- A Catfish Dance
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- "Here," Mal said, giving the object to his father.
- "This looks like a lady's leather watch band. But there's no watch," Mort said.
- "The catfish led me to it. Maybe it'll lead me to the watch." Mal grew excited at the thought of the fish leading him to something that was lost.
- "Ah, so you're a little Dr. Doolittle," Mort teased.
- "A little Doolittle? What's that?" Mal asked.
- "Dr. Doolittle is a fictional character that talked to the animals," Mort explained.
- "I didn't talk to the catfish, dad. I just followed it," Mal said, totally confused.
- "We'll have to rent the movie sometime so you know what I mean," Mort said. "Now, where's that catfish?"
- "Look, Dad. It's by the boat. Does it want us to go out in the boat?"
- "I don't know, son. Let's watch it."
- The catfish skimmed the bottom of the pond, making its way toward the front of the boat and away from the sandy beach. It turned around when it reached the front of the boat and swam back. When it nearly reached the beach, it turned around and swam again alongside the boat, this time stopping a little further ahead of the boat. Then back again.
- "See Dad, it definitely wants us to go out in the boat!"
- "It certainly looks that way, Mal. Shall we?"
- Mort put the net and two fishing poles into the boat and they climbed in. Mel, meanwhile, was content with her "little fishies."
- Mal watched the catfish as his father slowly pulled on the oars. He didn't want Mal to lose sight of the catfish too quickly as the water got deeper.
- Mort needn't have worried. Just as the bottom of the pond dropped away from view, the catfish jumped out and splashed on the the surface of the water.
- I didn't think catfish jumped, Mort thought. But, I'm not really a fisherman, he reasoned. Maybe some do.
- Mort pulled the oars in the direction of the splash. Then another splash, this time closer to the center of the pond.
- Mal could hardly contain his excitement. "Dad, it's the same kind of splashing we heard at night. The catfish wants us to be out here!"
- "Hush, Mal," Mort warned. "We don't want to scare it."
- "He doesn't seem scared to me," Mal replied.
- More splashing. This time in the same place. The catfish seemed to be doing a kind of fish dance for them.
- "Seems like we should set our poles out here, wouldn't you say, Mal?"
- "Sure, Dad. I wonder what we'll catch."
- The splashing stopped, so Mort baited their hooks and set his pole next to the oar lock while Mal fished off the back of the boat. Mal felt a tug on his pole after only a couple of minutes. He saw a dark shadow off to the side, but it was too far away to be causing the pull on his line.
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- The Loch's Big Fish
- "Dad, I've got something!"
- "The way it's bending your pole, it must be pretty big. Careful, Mal. You don't want it to break your line or pole. Reel it in slowly. I'll help you. Then let's see if we can get it in the net." Mort was now almost as excited as his son.
- Mal seemed to know instinctively how to "play" the fish, slowly winding the reel to take up any slack without over-straining the line. Soon they were able to see the fish. It was BIG!
- "It might be a largemouth bass, Mal."
- Despite its size, the fish didn't put up much of a struggle. Mort put the net in the water and swooped up the fish, still caught on Mal's hook. He carefully removed the hook and put the fish, still in the net, in the bottom of the boat. "Nice big eating fish, Mal. Congratulations on your first catch! Let's show Mom, Mel and Grandpa."
- "Bet it's bigger than all of Mel's 'little fishies,'" Mal boasted.
- Mort and Mal got quite a welcome as they approached the beach. Mike was the first to speak. "Hope you've caught us a nice dinner, Mal."
- "Guess what, Grandpa! I caught the biggest fish in the whole pond!"
- "Well, did you now? Let's see what you've got."
- Mort picked up the net. The big fish had barely flopped around after it was out of the water and it was completely still now, almost as though it wanted to get caught.
- "That's one of the biggest largemouth bass I've seen anyone ever catch!" Mike exclaimed. "Good thing, too. It seems your sis felt sorry for the fish she caught and let them all go. I guess she trusted that you'd bring back enough dinner for all of us."
- "They were really happy to go back in the pond," Mel explained. "They didn't look happy, all crowded together in that old bucket, splashing around like crazy. How did you catch that big fish, Mal?"
- Mal was relieved that he didn't have to prove that the fish he caught was really bigger than all of Mel's smaller fish.
- "That ol' catfish..." Mal started, and then stopped, realizing that the others might not understand.
- "Fishing is hard to explain," Mort said. "That's part of why so many people like it, I guess."
- Agnes lifted up the fish and held it over her head, mostly to keep it out of Rufus' reach. "This will make a mighty fine main course, Mal." I'll wash and gut it over by the pump. Dad, have you got your trusty knife with you?"
- "I want to watch," said Mal. "Me too," Mel said after a moment's hesitation. She didn't want anyone to think she was a sissy or anything.
- So everyone went over with Agnes to the water pump; the men laid some newspaper over an old tree stump that would serve as a natural workbench for preparing the fish for grilling.
- "It sure is big," Agnes commented. "I wonder how much it weighs."
- Mort and his dad looked at each other and both trotted off to the storage area at the same time.
- A Neat "Way" to "Weigh"
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- "What? What did I say?" Agnes asked, confused.
- A few minutes later, Mort and Mike returned with two unopened bags. One was a 10 lb bag of hickory chips for adding flavoring to the charcoal grill; the other a 15 lb bag of grass seed.
- "Now, all we need to do is find a flat board to balance on that rock there," Mike said, pointing to a pointy rock.
- Agnes caught on to the experiment right away. "How about an oar...hmm, better yet, tie the two oars together with a paddle on either end?"
- "Perfect, Aggie," Mike complimented his daughter-in-law.
- Confused, the twins wondered why the adults suddenly decided to make a teeter-totter when they were talking about fish just a moment ago.
- Mort went down to the boat to get the oars and Mike went to find some duct tape to fasten the two oars together. They laid the oars on the tip of the rock and moved them one side and the other until they just balanced.
- "Do you think Mal's fish is closer to 10 or 15 lbs, Ag?" Mort asked his wife.
- "Let's try the 10 lbs first," she replied, bringing over the fish.
- Mike held the oars steady on the rock while Mort placed the 10 lb bag on one side and Agnes put the fish on the other. The fish side went down.
- "This shows that the fish weighs more than 10 lbs. Let's see what happens if we put the 15 lb bag on the other side."
- Mort removed the 10 lb bag and lifted the 15 lb bag onto his end. Down it came with a bang, causing the fish to fly in the air. Agnes was ready, though, and easily caught the fish.
- Mal and Mel giggled, remembering their earlier lesson on the water trampoline. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction," they recited together.
- "Well, almost. We know that the fish weighs more than 10 lbs and less than 15 lbs. Can we find out how much over 10 or under 15?" Mort asked the twins.
- "The big bag made the fish bounce high, but the fish didn't make the smaller bag bounce at all," Mel said.
- "That's very observant," Mike said. "We could also try moving the fish in toward the middle with the small bag on the other end."
- "Or move the big bag more toward the middle," said Mal. "Then see which moves more, the fish with the little bag or the big bag with the fish."
- And so further experimentation showed that the fish Mal caught was about 11 lbs. The adults were pleased (not to mention quite surprised) at how much fun learning some laws of physics could be.
- "I'll get the grill started," Mort volunteered, knowing Agnes would want the fish to be as fresh as possible.
- A Fishy Surprise
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- Using Mike's knife, Agnes slit the fish lengthwise along its belly. As she reached inside to remove the innards, she felt something very un-fishlike - a hard, round disk.
- "What do we have here?" she asked, as she washed off the object at the pump.
- "Mort, you've got to see this," she called out, holding up the disk.
- "What's that, Ag?" Mort asked, as Agnes handed it to him.
- "Let me see, let me see," Mal and Mel begged.
- "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" Mike roared. "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking!"
- "Huh?" said Mal.
- Mort had almost forgotten the watchstrap Mal discovered earlier and now pulled it out of his pocket. "I'll bet it goes with this."
- "Is it still ticking, Mom?" Mal asked.
- "The second hand is still moving. It must be a self-winding watch. The fish's swimming around must have kept it wound up," Agnes reasoned. "And it's the right time for daylight savings time. I wonder how long it was in the fish."
- "I'll ask Al when I get back to work," Mort said. "He might know who lost this."
- Everyone agreed that the 11 lb (more or less) largemouth bass was just about the tastiest they had ever eaten. And about as much fun as the fish boil. Even Rufus seemed to agree, who got some scraps to go along with his dog food.
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- LINKS: BOOK 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
iNTRODUCTION TO BOOK 2
INTRODUCTION TO THE BIOFABLES SERIES
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