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Every once in a while I like to pop the bubbles that surface up. Then I give them a good listening to. It helps me get inside the mind of the fish. When I used to read fishing magazines, I got a head full of cartoon bubbles bursting with fresh fishing ideas; it was like I was on straight oxygen.

Over the years people have told me these rising bubbles were gas bubbles. I’d ask “hey you see that bubble”? Then, I’d get some story like, somehow air was trapped subsurface and do to underwater unseen currents, they just randomly pop up. Now, since I have been fishing the better part of fifty years I decided to do some bubble research on my own. After all, how does air suddenly get trapped way down there on the bottom of a lake?

First I started watching the minnows in my minnow bucket. On warm days, my how they make buckets of bubbles. They were all down there just  fish breathing I thought, but if I leaned over, put my ear closer, not only did I hear the ocean,  I heard what  they were doing was scheming on how to get out of the bucket and back into the lake. Turns out each fish bubble was a fish word. Now logically, small minnows make small bubbles.

So I started listening to bigger bubbles.

Over the years I would see a burp sized bubble come up and think to myself, boy the lake sure is gassy today. But that never made sense. No lake I know suffers from indigestion or irritable bowel syndrome. Only now do I know it’s just a big giant fish down there makin fish words. Big bubbles equaled big fish.

Some bubbles did appear foul. Just abit off color. Some rose really fast. Some just burbled and bubbled up slowly. Some bubbles actually made a popping noise as if getting rid of something. Like words. Fish words.

Some of those fish words are only four letters. Those four letter fish words usually come from a fish biting the hook with my minnow. These are the Trojan horse minnows I fish with. Then within seconds…fish bubbles would surface. This started to make sense. It came to me about twelve ounces of understanding at a time, but I was learning.

Fish are really smart. They train me. They talk to each other all the time. If you get good, you can hear the fish talking as you launch your boat. “Hey, here comes a guy fishing, pass the word, nobody bite today”. Or they say “here comes a guy paddling with no fish pole, go make terrific splashing jumps by him”. When they jump completely out of the water and I have no fishing gear, then I use the four letter words I heard from the fish. Fish school, one-o-one.

This then creates a gas bubble and an irritable bowel syndrome in my boat. To relieve this condition I start to listen to other bubbles. These are called beer bubbles. If you catch me leaning over the boat, I may be listening to fish bubbles or the beer bubbles, but I’m  doing some very serious air entrained research. Cheers,

The Trout Whisperer

Inside the Mind of a Guide

Living the Dream in God's Country - Superior National Forest

Join author, professional guide, and master storyteller, Karl "Trout Whisperer" Seckinger, as he takes you on a 20 year, mystical journey into the Superior National Forest.

On this CD, Trout Whisperer's unique manner of storytelling, and digital sound effects, will transport you on a journey that will place you in the heart of the 'super natural forest' that is known as the Superior National Forest.

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