The Neighbor's Nets

 The preacher man says it's the end of time

And the Mississippi River she's a-goin' dry

The interest is up and the Stock Market's down

And you only get mugged if you go downtown

I live back in the woods, you see

My woman and the kids, and the dogs, and me

I got a shotgun, a rifle, and a 4-wheel drive

And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive...

we can skin a buck; we can run a trotline

And a country boy can survive

- Hank Jr.

Listening to the lyrics of that country song, I often thing that Ol' Hank knows my neighbors.  We have really good neighbors.  While we have farm animals and grow crops for most of our food, our neighbors hunt, fish, trap for theirs.  They truly live off the land.  They are accomplished sportsmen.  This weekend I saw a big project underway next door, and I walked over to see what was on the agenda.  I was greeted by a powerful smell - like black tar or creosote.  They had a plastic children's swimming pool and were pouring pails of the black substance into the pool.

For quite some time they were building hoop nets in their barn, attaching netting around fiberglass hoops.  Now that they had the nets all built, they were applying a coating to the nets to protect them from rot and the elements.  Once they coated all the nets, they stretched them out to allow them to dry.

The hoop nets were all different sizes.  I asked what the price would be if you wanted to buy one.  They told me about $450.  My neighbors primarily put the hoop nets out in Bayou Nezpique and the Mermentau River.  They catch lots and lots of catfish and buffalo (carp) and gar fish.  Any other sport fish (bass, sacalait) must be released.  Their plan is to place nets in the Atchafalaya River and also the Sabine River.  They've secured a deal in which they sell all the fish they catch to fish markets and sell any buffalo they catch for crawfish bait.  

They have built a number of different sizes and styles of nets - all with different goals in mind.  The traps are dropped in the river and are weighted down with weights/anchors.  A GPS marker marks the spot of each net.  (You don't want anyone else knowing where your nets are!)  The nets are dropped with the opening faced upstream.  Since fish swim upstream, they swim right into the "funnel" which appears to be a big, dark log.  There the biggest fish remain in the net, while the smaller ones swim right through the openings.

The nets are run daily by dropping a big hook that hooks onto the rope you see below in front of the net.  The net is pulled into the boat.  The hoops telescope onto one another and the fish fall into the bottom of the boat.  Desirable fish are kept and the others are tossed back to continue growing.

My neighbors have always done this, but now as they are reaching retirement age, they are stepping up their game and have made more nets to catch plenty of fish to fill their freezers as well as sell to fish markets.  They look forward to putting the nets in the water.  The catch will be slow at first, but at the end of February and into the Spring, they anticipate filling their boat with fish.  They've invited me along, and when I go, I'll be sure to chronicle the outing.

'Cause you can't starve us out and you can't make us run

'Cause we're them old boys raised on shotgun

And we say "grace" and we say "Ma'am"

And if you ain't into that we don't give a damn darn.  ;)