Poetry: Night Crawler Double Trouble

Night Crawler Double Trouble

On a joint Schaefer-Zahniser expedition
into the Adirondack Flowed Lands area,
led by Moms Carolyn and Alice, we boys—
Cub Schaefer, my brother Matt and I—
decided we’d catch lots of trout to feed
our crew. So, we carried-in a big, bailed
construction bucket, with some dirt,
slung on a pole for two of us at a time
to transport night-crawlers, in shifts.

I guess this affront to traveling light
was a paeon to the early 1950s “Ramar
of the Jungle” television show. It made
for some hard work—we also carried
backpacks with shares of camping gear.

But trout dreams shored up our resolve
like the motto of our “they hook and
they hold” snelled fishhooks. You can
imagine our shock and awe when trout
fled as a night-crawler landed nearby.
It turned out that big leeches had been
introduced into the lakes and ponds
that were uncanny doubles to our bait!

Fortunately, we also brought fishing
flies and light lures, so we did catch
trout—and knew we could haul back
our bucket of air, not dirt and worms.