Have you ever heard of a pickle fish? Well let me explain. It was a nice, sunny, day in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Just the kind of day for a family fishing trip. So, I (14 year old Andy Eichner), helped Dad lift our Kayak onto our car. We ratcheted it to the top of our Ford Expedition and set off with my 5 other siblings and Mom to McArthur lake, located on Fort Bragg.
Upon arriving my slightly younger brother and I launched our inflatable boat while Dad took turns with the other 4 kids in the Kayak. It was early April, and it looked like the perfect day for bass fishing. We fished for hours though without catching anything. We tried everything. Ripping spinnerbaits through the shadows on the shoreline. Bumping crankbaits off of submerged stumps. Working plastic worms around submerged logs. Plying the shallow water in the back end on the lake with a crawdad lure.
Carefully retrieving a Rapala jerkbait around submerged logs. But nothing. Finally, toward the end of the trip, Dad took my four year old brother, “Scooby,” out in the kayak. With his two foot long Paw Patrol fishing rod in hand and one of our not so nice lures we didn’t mind losing on the end of his pole, he boarded the kayak with an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
So, when the kayak came back with “Scooby” yelling “Fish!” I immediately imagined a little bluegill. But, to my astonishment, He had a nice 13 inch chain pickerel on the end of his frayed line! And boy was he excited. When he got home that night, mom let him call grandpa to tell of his catch. And when grandpa answered the phone, “Scooby” loudly proclaimed, “I caught a pickle fish!” And that is where the term “Pickle fish” came from. I have no doubt that “Scooby” will grow up to be a great outdoorsman. Even before his second birthday, “Scooby” had shot a longbow and caught a fish. And that is the story of the Pickle fish!
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