Fish are biting

There's an old saying that I've heard for years. Like many old sayings, it's easy to say that's an old wives tale. But when you start sorting through the facts and fiction, there's often a level of truth behind the sayings. 

My old friend Leo at the Forks of the river is the first one I heard say it. We were riding through Sipsey and past an old barn with a weary barbed wire fence. It was in late August and the sun was brutal. He glanced out the passenger window at cows in the pasture and said, "The cows are laying down. That's means the fish ain't biting."

I've never researched that particular saying, but I still think it when I drive by cattle in a pasture. 

I also bend, spindle, and mutilate old saying. For example, when I'm trying to explain how simple something is to do, I say, "It's not rocket surgery."  Another example is, "You can lead a gift horse to water, but you can't look him in the mouth." Or, "He's not the sharpest tool in the elevator."

At any rate, I learned today when I drove by cows standing knee high in bitterweed that fish were most likely biting.