Big shrimp can be awfully good, and other oxymorons

For years, I thought “oxymoron” was laundry detergent for people with low intelligence.

 

Recently, I have come to understand that an oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two contradictory ideas to create a thought-provoking expression. So, as it turns out, if it were laundry detergent for people with low intelligence, I would be the spokesperson, and my clothes would be really clean.

 

According to ChatGPT, “big shrimp” is an oxymoron when used in the proper context. As an example, I went deep-hole shrimping and caught a limit of big shrimp. Frankly, I am not sure if it is an oxymoron or not. But I did go deep-hole shrimping and caught a limit of big shrimp. To tell the truth, I liked it better when an oxymoron was laundry detergent.

 

On Friday evening, my son Elliott was fishing in the Wando River. On the depth finder, he marked what he thought was a bunch of shrimp in a hole at the mouth of a creek. So, on Saturday morning, we brought the deep-hole cast net when we went fishing.

 

It was really windy on Saturday, and the Wando River was rough. Conditions were nasty, but fishing was very good. We cast Z-Man Finesse TRD lures on 1/6-ounce NedLockZ jigs to oyster bars on wind-protected creek banks. 

 

Trout and redfish were schooled up and hungry. However, when the tide went slack, the bite turned off.

 

On the ride back to the dock, we stopped at the location where Elliott marked shrimp on Friday.  I adjusted the depth finder and slowly searched the hole for signs of shrimp on the bottom. It took a little looking, but we eventually located the shrimp in 30 feet of water.

 

Elliott cast the deep-hole net and let it sink to the bottom. When he pulled it up, big shrimp were in the net.

 

Back at the dock, Elliott and I were deheading the shrimp, and Elliott’s shirt got a little dirty. I laughed and said, “Don’t worry, Oxymoron will get that right out.”