The Scar

Tue, Oct 31, 2006

This, the only Mieville I’ve yet to read (well, not King Rat either) arrived yesterday, and I’m taking some time here and there to read it. I’m more than a bit of a sucker for the Fiend Folio bestiary combined with vanguardist class critique.

And the opening reminded me of my recent fishing trip, where I succeeded in bringing out of the water only a floating green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis), who gratefully wrapped himself around my lure, a mullet-looking thing I rather quixotically hoped might interest a passing trout or red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus). The pinfish and crabs poked out its eyes. To be completely fair, I did almost bring up a minute sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus). What really gets me about this failure, however, is that both of the last times I’ve gone fishing (both in a small Core Sound creek), a couple, using essentially the same bait and rig, has caught several large speckled trout (Cynoscion nebulosus), black drum (Pogonias cromis), bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix), and even a handsome oyster toad (Opsanus tau), in the same spot at the same time. Besides the aforementioned lizard, I’ve only managed assorted croakers (Micropogonias undulatus), pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides), blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus), hog fish (Orthopristis chrysoptera), and the lone meager spot (Leiostomus xanthurus). Furthemore, I recently bought an ultralight spinning rod and had it spooled with 6lb monofilament, which I’m finding doesn’t hold up too well near oyster beds.