Uncle Bill’s Trotlines

Written by Bill Joiner

“Late one night, my Uncle Drew and I were the only ones awake so we went by ourselves to check the trotline. I was paddling as Uncle Drew was in the front of the small jon boat, shining the light. He suddenly found something he always dreaded, a snake in the water. He didn’t really want to see a snake, but he was always looking.

 Uncle Drew said, “Billy, look at that crazy thing!” I had never seen this before but the snake was elevated about six inches out of the water and was headed straight to us like he was surfing a wave. In his excitement, Uncle Drew backed up and stumbled over a boat seat. He fell backwards and dropped the flashlight. When the light hit the bottom of the boat, it went out. We were in total, inky blackness and the last thing either one of us saw, was the snake heading for the boat.

 At that instant, something started moving around in the bottom of the boat. Uncle Drew did his best to capsize us until I found the light and got it to come back on, to find that a small bream (fish) had jumped out of the water, landed in our boat and started flopping around the bottom. Don’t tell me that God doesn’t have a sense of humor. I’m sure He thought this was hilarious. After we saw the source of the flopping in our boat, we both laughed. Me a lot, Uncle Drew not so much.”

 Thanks,

 Bill Joiner

Author of American Entrepreneur