An Old Indian Trick

An Old Indian Trick

One of my major objectives in life is the pursuit of secret fishing tricks, those kind that are not known by anybody, especially, my fishing peers. Each June I am involved in a trout tournament at Crowley Lake. The collective point for all the participants is Bishop California where most of us (200) stay at the Outdoorsman Motel.

After the first days fishing I was having dinner at one of the local restaurants and a Paiute Indian girl was my waitress. How did I know? I asked her! My best fishing buddy, Jed Welsh, is 91 years old , grew up in the eastern Sierras and is a very experienced trout fisherman. He once told me the Paiutes were hunting and fishing the Sierras before the white man and they knew every secret to catching trout. They never shared any secrets with the white man though, and they don¹t to this day. But my Indian waitress confessed to me that ant eggs were automatic trout catchers and that¹s all she used for the local trout. I should have known better. The ants are those super big ones that come out on the forest floor during the morning and evening hours and disappear through the heat of the day. She said to take a shovel and turn over the ant nest. When the ants come hustling out of the pile carrying the eggs, grab them and collect the eggs. You guessed it, they bite and they bite with gusto. When you fought the ants to get a few eggs the next problem showed up. When I tried to put the ants on the hook it was virtually impossible to get them to stay on. It was much like trying to hook onto a droplet of wet mud. Yes! A retributive Paiute had taken me.

Later my old buddy told me how to hook those eggs onto the hook and how to avoid those painful bites. To avoid the bites you use a large matchbox container, the kind where the inside slides back and forth. With the box slid closed, cut 1/2 holes in each side. Place the box next to the turned over nest. The ants will frantically look for a shady spot for their eggs
and enter the box to deposit the eggs. When the box fills up with eggs you are ready to go fishing if you can get them on the hook. My old buddy Jed, paid a price to the Paiutes to gain the secret of eggs and hooking. Two old Paiutes sold him the secret by making him bite the pinchers off a Pine Beetle Grub, chew it up and swallow it. He confesses that it wasn¹t bad at all. It tasted like a piece of Pine bark and besides it was certainly worth it.