Fish Tale

I have never been the one to take the kids fishing.  I do not know the first thing about how to attach all the junk to the line.  That’s always been Karl’s job.  Then I can help the kids cast and reel and untangle.  Well, my Mom lives here now and she and fishing go way back.  She has been eager to go with the kids, even though she can’t physically do the fishing.  But she can attach all the junk and tell me what to do.

Since we worked so hard yesterday in the garden and mowing lawns, we played today.  Mom and I took Rita and Anthony to a local stock pond, Pine Grove Pond.  Mom rigged up the kids little fishing poles and I got them started.  Then she rigged Brendan’s pole so I could use it. 

After a few casts, Anthony wanted to use the “big fishing pole”.  So I casted it out and handed it to him. Within a minute or two he asked me to help him reel it in because he said, “I caught one”.  I told him I didn’t think so and took the pole from him. Indeed there was something moving the line, so I set the hook and started reeling. 

It’s been 20 years since I caught a fish and I kept thinking to myself, “man, this is harder than I remember”.  Then the line jerked and ran my reel all the way out.  I reeled it back some and it did it again and then again.  I felt like a little girl because I kept looking at Mom and asking, “is it supposed to do that?”.  I was thinking that I must not be very good, because this is a stock pond and I couldn’t get the stupid fish in.  I was expecting a small or medium fish.  Anthony helped reel from time to time and would get tired and I would take over again. 

Imagine our surprise and delight when, ten minutes later, we finally got the fish near the shore.  I pulled it to the edge and this is what Anthony hooked.

Anglers under 14 are allowed to keep one fish per day and even though Anthony did not want to touch it or have it touch him, there was no way he was letting it get thrown back.  Our gallon sized baggie was quite inadequate to contain this thing, which ended up being a 9.8 pound rainbow trout.  Luckily the FWP folks were there helping some school kids with a field trip and gave me a garbage bag. 

Rita and I tried for a while to get a fish for her, but kids get bored and it was time for Brendan to be getting out of school.  Anthony was very sweet and said he would share the fish with Rita.

He is now totally psyched about fishing.  It will be a hard reality when he realizes that this was totally the exception and not the rule.

Dinner was delicious.