Thread: Holy Greenflies---What's that smell!!!???

Had a great day Saturday on Barkley with a couple of young boys and their stepdad. We got into a mixed bag of fish with some black and white crappie in the mix. As is usual, I'm running around like the proverbial chicken without his head and trying to keep lines straight, fish off the cranks and measured, in and out of the livewell as well as the cooler full of bottled water. I didn't have an exact count of what was in the livewell since we were well under our 3 person limit.

At the end of the trip, I dropped them off at Buzzard Rock Marina then I went to the public launch to load the Excel up. I didn't see a cleaning station at Buzzard Rock so I figured I would have to clean fish on the tailgate of my truck as I've done lots of times. The family met me in the parking lot of the ramp and one of the boys held the bag for the fish while the other dug around in the livewell for the fish. There were 2 22pound ice bags in the livewell and I asked them to make sure they checked everything well so we didn't leave any. They said it was clear so we started in cleaning the catch.

One of the boys, the youngest at about 9, wanted to try to clean a fish with the 12 volt fillet knife as his Mom took pics. I showed him and held the knife with him as he did his best. It wasn't great but a good start. We got done, said our goodbyes as the youngest wanted to give me a big hug as he thanked me for taking them. I told the parents they should be very proud of the fine young men they were raising, then we headed in different directions.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I had some honey-do jobs to do so as I went out thru the garage, a very familiar smell hit my sinuses. No doubt as to it's origin so I just raised the garage door and pulled the still hooked up truck and boat out into the driveway. I walked up the trailer steps and into the boat as a cloud of green flies was trying to find a way into my livewell. Yep!! I opened the lid and there, wrapped up in 2 ice bags, were the remains of what was once an 11 inch white crappie.

There was no way to be tactful. I had to just reach in, trying not to gag, and scoop up the now liquid remains. I tossed them out into the yard to deal with later. Now I had to deal with a green slime that was working its way down my livewell drain. A good squirt of Dawn in the well and about 200 gallons of water later, the livewell smells almost as good as it did before the trip Saturday morning.

I KNEW to check the livewell but failed to do so. I still don't know what I'm going to do with the remains and garbage bags. I guess I could hope for a big wind to blow them across the street into my neighbor's well-groomed yard but that wouldn't be very nice and I figure he'd have a good idea who and where they came from. Good thing Monday is garbage day.

I laugh only because I've been there. We had 4 huge skipjacks in the boat after a day of catfishing that were left in the baitwell of my old boat which I never used so never checked it. My buddy stuck them inside with a small bag ice to keep them cool in the hot May sun. When I pulled the boat out the next weekend from the storage unit it was covered in various stage of flies. To the car wash we went. The worst part was reaching my hand into the baitwell to pull the plug. To this day, Wayne isn't allowed to bring bait into my boat.