Shupac
05-27-2006, 09:05 AM
I saw this at midcurrent.com"
I was introduced to the fine art of smelling bream beds by my paternal grandmother, Granny Myrtle. She would walk around a farm pond with her nose held aloft like a bird dog searching the breeze for quail. Suddenly, she would stop, point toward an otherwise indistinct spot on the water’s surface, and announce that “there they are".... How did she know they were there? Granny would patiently explain that she had “smelled the beds.” When pressed to elaborate, she would say that she couldn’t describe the scent, but that “you’ll know it when you smell it.”
The smell of a bream bed is unlike anything else. It’s sort of sweet, sort of fishy and at least a little stinky. It’s not unpleasant, though. It’s unique and captivating. The best way to experience it is to work your way around the shallows of a farm pond this time of year, pausing at frequent intervals to sniff and consider the various aromas. The smell of freshly-plowed ground, of mowed grass, of decaying vegetation in a brackish marsh — those form the backdrop for the unique scent that forms around spots where bluegills have picked to procreate. Like Granny said, once you smell it, you’ll know what it is — and you’ll never forget it. From then on, when you come across it, you’ll know bream are nearby and ready for the catching.
I was introduced to the fine art of smelling bream beds by my paternal grandmother, Granny Myrtle. She would walk around a farm pond with her nose held aloft like a bird dog searching the breeze for quail. Suddenly, she would stop, point toward an otherwise indistinct spot on the water’s surface, and announce that “there they are".... How did she know they were there? Granny would patiently explain that she had “smelled the beds.” When pressed to elaborate, she would say that she couldn’t describe the scent, but that “you’ll know it when you smell it.”
The smell of a bream bed is unlike anything else. It’s sort of sweet, sort of fishy and at least a little stinky. It’s not unpleasant, though. It’s unique and captivating. The best way to experience it is to work your way around the shallows of a farm pond this time of year, pausing at frequent intervals to sniff and consider the various aromas. The smell of freshly-plowed ground, of mowed grass, of decaying vegetation in a brackish marsh — those form the backdrop for the unique scent that forms around spots where bluegills have picked to procreate. Like Granny said, once you smell it, you’ll know what it is — and you’ll never forget it. From then on, when you come across it, you’ll know bream are nearby and ready for the catching.