I started writing this post shortly after my last post (actually as sort of a continuation), but life moves fast and I haven't had a chance to post it until now.
When
I was younger, I never fished fresh water, never thought I needed to
and I probably didn't. Now that I'm older, I still don't think I
need to but found out I really want to.
This
past June, The kids and I were supposed to go with some friends and
their kids on a fishing boat. Well, one friend got sick, so the trip
was canceled. For fathers day, Lizzy bought me a fresh water pole
and fishing kit. Sadly, I had bought Lizzy real nice pole several
years before that she never had the occasion to use.
The
evening after Fathers' Day, Lizzy and I trekked to the local brook,
found a great spot to set up and began to fish. I explained to Lizzy
that the best fresh water fishing bait was corn. She thought I was
crazy until, after a a few minutes, she landed a blue gill. The fish
was so small, I tried not to laugh. A few minutes later, she landed
a large mouth bass, then a crappie and then a few more sunfish. All
in all, we caught and released fifteen fish that night. Lizzy and I
continued every evening for the following week. We caught cat fish,
suckers, pumpkins, large mouths and a plethora of other fish.
R.,
made it a point to tell us she thought it cruel to catch and release
fish. That was until one evening when she joined us at the brook and made
her first catch. She was hooked (pun intended). We started going
fishing 2 then 3 then 4 then 5 nights a week.
Then
it happened. One morning, while I was at the brook alone, I got a
tug on my pole like no other fresh water fish had done. Shocked, I
mentally struggled to figure out what had happened, dumbfounded I
began to reel in my catch. It was a beautiful carp. Trying to get
it out of the water, the weight of the fish snapped my line. I
mourned as I watched the beautiful golden creature quickly disappear,
right in front of me. Now in modern Ahab fashion, I rushed home and
ordered a net off of Ebay, I had to catch the great gold carp.
I
started visiting the brook almost every day with R.. Finally one
evening while reeling in, something grabbed my line and ran. The drag
was low but the pole still struggled as it bent and creaked. The
fish jumped out of the water as my heart jumped from my chest and my
mind yelled, “Thar she blows!”. I got the carp to the edge of
the brook, R. quickly grabbed the leader and got the fish onto land.
As I picked it up, Adrenalin shot into my veins, I caught the golden,
slimy scaled fish and I survived. We took some pictures and
realizing the poor creature was struggling returned it to it's
environment.
If you
asked me that day, what the greatest part of fishing was, I would
have probably said, landing the big one. In the following weeks
though, something happened, we found new fishing locales, we caught
many carp and other types of fish. R., the kids and I spent hours
talking, laughing and enjoying ourselves, as R. would say, “Enjoying
nature, while catching fish once in a while.”
August
came, Emily moved away to college and Lizzy went back to school.
R. and I continued to to go to the brook and enjoy each others
company when we could. Then as the leaves began to change, my work
situation no longer afforded me the time to go fishing, R. and I
decided that maybe it was time that we should pick other activities
with our limited free time.
I'm sure
we'll all go fishing together again, but for one whole summer, we
seized the days, we valued the time and we created moments that will
last a lifetime.
