An empty stringer.

For non outdoor people, a stringer is what you use to put on fish on to take them home to clean them. Then there are some very advanced anglers have $50,000 fishing rigs, fancy high-powered boats that are loaded few hi-tech electronics that tell them how to get home at night. They even have live wells where they put their catch, fish that they also intend to take home, clean and eat. I would think that they should be called dead wells but whose is going to purchase a $50,000 boat with a thing called a dead well.

So my little row boat has a $1.50 stinger ( a small piece of rope with a metal tip). 99% of the time I completely forget to have the thing along. Then again most of the time I forget either a rod, tackle box, fishing license, thermos (with Capt. Morgan) , or a PFD personal flotation device. To go fishing you’ve got to have your act together.

Subconsciously I think I leave the stringer at home due to the fact that cleaning fish is a pain. And what do you do with the inners? I know you are going to tell me to throw it into my neighbor’s yard? The problem there is that my neighbor is my brother and he’d be wise as to where it came from. Plus, his dog would be into it in a snap for she’s the best fisher ‘person’ on the lake. Add this to the fact that night crawlers are $4.00 a dozen and you can go to McD’s and get 2 fish sandwiches $3.00 and there are many a sound reason to leave your stringer at home.