Ooh, Ooh That Smell. Smells like...Ew, Never mind!

When I was about six years old, I had a classic yellow slicker.  A Paddington Bear type of rain coat and I loved that thing.  One July evening, I ventured out to collect night crawlers, which we did often because we fished every weekend in the summer with my extended family.  We would travel to various locales in the Adirondack region or along the Mohawk River on Saturday nights and then take our little 16 foot Star Craft out on the Great Sacandaga Lake on Sundays.

Summers in upstate New York are hazy, hot, and humid. A few days after my Lumbricus terrestris safari a most unsavory odor began to emanate from my room-more specifically, my dresser drawer, where, as you may have guessed by now, my beloved rain coat lay with a festering pool of worms in it's pockets. My mother could not even attempt a washing of the garment as it was indeed gag evoking. Into the the metal garbage can it went.  I am certain the ever present flies and their spawn feasted like kings that week.

Flash forward 45 years and the worms in the raincoat have been supplanted by dismembered body parts  of Scomber scombrus -  a.k.a.  a fetid pool of Atlantic Mackerel fish head in my tackle box.

Ah, the sporting life.

Freeport Town Landing
setting the stage for the gruesome discovery this evening