The Fish Twist, eh? Sounds like a possible new song in somebody's future with a dance craze attached to it.* Or maybe it's just what that eel does when you're pulling it out of the bay onto the boat when, all of a sudden, it gives a double wriggle in mid-air that tangles your line up in a hundred knots so that you have to cut and re-rig, but you have this creature to unhook and let go that you didn't want in the first place. Some folks eat 'em, but I don't. Maybe it was hearing "Lord Randall" at an early age, I dunno.....


And Gurney, though the chorus remains the same, it's the verses they tinkered with. Mike Seeger was coming directly off Henry Thomas, I believe. In fact, these days, he actually performs the song with a cane fife (or "quill")like Henry did rather than the harmonica he put on record way back when......


Which reminds me, Mike recorded the Dixon Brothers'"Fisherman's Luck" in the 60's both on Prestige (from a Philly Folk Fest recording) and Folkways. A great song about a fisherman trading a snake drinks of whiskey for frogs, which were the fisherman's bait of choice. I don't know who's reissued any of the Dixons' stuff off 78's (including "The Intoxicated Rat" and the original "Wreck On The Highway").


I know Harry Cox did something about eel "babbing" called "Barton Broad Babbing Ballad" followed by an explanation of the process on "What Will Become Of England" from The Alan Lomax Collection (Rounder 11661-1839-2). Not exactly angling, but...


And I never found out whether the Vietnamese had any "Frag Fishing" songs when I was over there.

I'll drop another line later,
Severn


*It would have to be done up as Sole Music. Maybe get Fontella Bass or even Salmon Dave!