Trot Line

“We better find that village tomorrow,” Reb said. “I don’t fancy starving to death out here. Maybe we could catch a fish though.” His brow furrowed. “Yeah, we can run us a trot line across the river.”

“What’s a trot line?” Abigail asked curiously.

“You don’t know what a trot line is?” Reb was astounded. “You ain’t been well brought up, Abbie. What you do is, you stretch a line across a creek about like this one here—or even a big river. Then you tie little lines with hooks about every five feet across it. You bait them up, and then you see what you get. You catch fish.”

“We don’t have a boat,” Jake protested. “We don’t have hooks.”

“Shucks,” Reb said, shrugging. “That river ain’t very deep. Get some of that twine out. I’ll put the line out while the rest of you make up some short lines. Make hooks out of that little bit of wire we bought.”

They worked quickly, and within an hour they were ready. Reb waded across the stream—the water came up only to his chest. He tied one end of the line to a tree, then came back and said, “Now, give me them short lines.”

“What you going to use for bait?” Josh inquired.

“Well, if there’s any catfish in here, they’ll eat just about anything. Use some of that dried meat—that’ll do for a starter.” When Abbie brought the remains of the meat, Reb started out again. He stopped at each hook and baited it.

When he returned, he said, “That’s it! We ought to catch something. Now we’ll wait about an hour, and then we’ll run that line.”

“Why do they call it a trot line?” Sarah asked.

“Because you put the line out in the river, build a fire up back a piece, and then every hour you trot down to the line and take the fish off,” Reb explained.

They sat around the fire, waiting, hungry and uncomfortable. Mosquitoes began to hum in their ears, and finally when it was almost dark, Reb said, “I reckon I’ll go see if we got us a fish.”

The rest, curious, followed to watch him.

Stepping into the stream, Reb walked out, lifting the line, and pulled up the first hook. “Nothing here! Hope we got better luck on them other hooks.” He lifted up two more that were empty, then yelled, “We got one!”