Fish Story

Today is Saturday and I was trying my best to not work. I have this habit (as most of you know) of not giving myself permission to enjoy life; the feeling of guilt or not making progress or not improving the world, or something. Anyway, I have really gotten into fishing the past few years and this year more than ever. My wife and kids were heading down to her sisters family for the day today and, although tempted to "get a lot done", I decided to spend the bulk of the day fishing. I left home about 7:30 and went to East Rush Lake where I rented a boat and motor for the day... after fishing for about 45 minutes, including driving to the far south basin, the motor wouldn't start and then seized up on me... I enjoyed the 60 minute rowing adventure back to the "resort" where I decided I'd try my luck elsewhere (I caught a few sunfish and had one bass on the line that I lost). I went to the fishing pier at the north end of West Rush Lake and found it to be entirely grown over... I ate a sandwich and had a soda, but that was about it. Next, I drove to Little Stanchfield and fished off the road there a bit.... again, a few sunnies, but not much luck. Finally, on the way home, I stopped off at the narrows of Goose Lake. I'd driven down there before, but never parked and fished. I spent about 90 minutes there and caught a couple sunnies and about 8 bull-heads (which are brutal to take off the hook and I wouldn't eat them, but they fight which is fun). I brought them home to show the kids... all in all, I enjoyed the fishing, but not for the actual fishing.

After the family got home, we enjoyed tacos and watched some Andy Griffith on DVD (exciting stuff, huh?). I had this nagging feeling I should try to fish again tonight. I told my wife, "I know you'll think I'm crazy, but I want to head out again" and asked if any of the kids wanted to go with. Both my sons (including my avid fisherman) declined, but my daughter said she would go. We headed out about 8:30pm for the same spot on Goose Lake... about 10 minutes into the drive, we realized we forgot the worms and bug spray; we headed back home and I almost called it a night, but her and I decided to go anyway.

So we finally get there after 9:00pm and its starting to get dark. One of our rods had a snag in it that I discovered after putting the worm on for my daughter. We set the worm & hook on the bank of the lake and I started pulling the line off the reel in order to get to the snag. The hook and worm slid into the lake and we realized we had a bite; I told my daughter, "It's just a small sunny, let's get this snag out." So I kept pulling line off the reel and asked her to hold the line tight while I reeled it back in to untangle it. As we did this the bobber kept going out of sight. Finally we got the line all back in so it was taut with the fish and I set the hook. I gave the rod to my daughter to reel it in. She starts fighting this thing and the rod bent like crazy. I almost took the rod to reel it in myself, but I wanted her to fight it and she was having a blast. When the fish finally surfaced I said, "Man, that's a big fish." Without a net and worried about her dropping the pole, I was able to reach in and grab it by it's bottom lip. It was a largemouth bass - the biggest I have ever been involved in catching. We have it living out in our cooler overnight as I am writing this so that my other son (who was sleeping when we got home) can see it. Some other guys who were there estimated it to be about 4 pounds - we'll weigh and measure tomorrow (note: the next day it measured 18" and weighed about 3.5 pounds).

What's my point of all of this? I don't really have one - and maybe that's okay. I went an entire day without working (I did think about it some) and it ended with a memory that neither my daughter or I will forget for a long time - the day we caught a 4 pound largemouth six inches from shore while getting a tangle out of our reel. Perhaps the moral is simply, "Memories are great, but often it requires us putting ourselves in situations where they can happen." Maybe it should be more Christianese like, "Throw your net on the other side of the boat - or - try it after 9pm" or "God gives us the desires of our heart" or "The Holy Spirit was prompting me to go fish again." All of these may be true, but other nights I've gone out with no luck. Maybe I'll not analyze it and just savor the father-daughter moment we had tonight. Good night all.