Jul 4, 2020 4 min read

I would swear that this same gentleman standing at the register was in the store yesterday. After talking guns, a bit, I asked him if he had been standing in the same spot yesterday and he replied “Yep, and I hope I’m not standing in this same spot tomorrow.”

He told me his ripe bananas, which he bought at the store that morning, where getting mushy while he was waiting again. I think I might have uncovered a new record in the waiting period for a firearms purchase. Counting 25 minutes this particular morning, along with yesterday’s two-hour wait, he had been waiting almost 2 1/2 hours for an answer from Pennsylvania Instacheck. Now there is an oxymoron if ever I’ve heard one. The name should be waitacheck not instacheck.

It didn’t take that long to determine the man’s eligibility to legally own a firearm, just the time spent getting to him.

It matters not whether one hunts, target shoots or doesn’t own a firearm at all, the overall picture has to be dealt with like any other business. When the Instacheck program was first started it was offered to each state by the federal government, only to be rejected as inferior to the proposed state system. Now we find the state system has a problem.

Like the story above, it is not unusual for customers to wait up to a full hour to be cleared. These potential customers, we must remember, are not criminals but persons like yourself or the neighbor next door. I have watched as a customer left after he just got plain tired of waiting. Of course, the blame is placed on the salesman. The customer cannot see the shadowy group from Harrisburg who check his records electronically.

If the problem is centered in equipment failures, then get them fixed. If it is a lack of workers, then let’s hire some more. If we cannot find the source of this problem, then let’s switch to the federal program. Let’s get it right and live up to the name Instacheck. Unless we want to change the name to something like Timeconsumingcheck.

Incidentally, the man I ran into appeared to be about my age – perhaps he was an 85-year-old desperado.

• It is starting to get hot outside. I mean, really hot.

So John and I went fishing. In this kind of weather, one doesn’t fish local streams or lakes for trout and instead fishes for the large catfish inhabiting local waters. Most anglers think of the chanel cat as Pennsylvania’s No. 1 big catfish but there is another cat that gets larger and inhabits local lakes, ponds and rivers. Growing to weights approaching 60 pounds, the flathead reigns at the top of the catfish pecking order.

You may ask why does hot weather and catfishing go together? Well, for one thing, you fish for cats either after dark or at dusk. Of course, the mosquitos, like the catfish, do their best hunting then too, so wear some protection as catfishing is a lot of fun. This is a most relaxing way to fish. Just cast a baited hook out into water holding big cats and sit down to wait for that twitch in your line that tells you something is checking it out. If the underwater lure is tempting and the fish is moving it, then set the hook hard and hang on. They may not be game fish, but they are very strong, and they can grow to a very large size.

While I prefer to fish with 6- or 8-pound line a lot depends on the water. If there are a few snags in the water, you should use a heavier line. The reason being when a large fish over 10 pounds takes that lighter line, he goes where he wants to and that snag will be what he wants.

Lastly, be sure you use the right bait. That evening, John was using a beef heart and I was using a big gob of night crawlers. These fish love meat and some fishermen use bluegills.

After you hook one or two of these big babies you will be saying your arm is sore. Then you just take a break and sit back with your favorite beverage and enjoy the evening peace.

It’s a lot of fun to watch someone catch a big one, too. So, take it from me, go out and find a pond that has the right fish, take a friend and go catfishing. You will forget all about this crazy world and relax. You may get one of the big ones, then you will have your own story to tell.