The Best fishing Day Ever!

I love going fishing with my family, but there have been many fishing days where I never even got a nibble on my line.  I prepared my pole and, with high hopes, cast my line into the water. Then I wait, and wait! and wait!! I look at the end of my pole and will it to bend.  I stare at the water and picture a big fish coming along and eating my bait.  The most distressing thing of all is that I find myself talking to the fish.  " Come ooonnn big fishy, you know you waaannnt it.
It's ok, just go ahead and take a bite.  I won't hurt you.  I promise, I will throw you back in".  I sometimes wonder if other fishermen, or fisherwomen as in my case, talk to fish like I do or if I am just bordering a little on insanity.

Last weekend my husband and I gathered up our fishing supplies, loaded our kids into our family truckster ( a Chevy Suburban), and headed off to a nearby lake to spend the morning fishing.  As usual, I had high hopes.  My boys and I had gone fishing the day before and noticed that some men across the bay were having unbelievable success while we were sitting there green with envy, so we were hoping that today was our day.

We got to the waters edge, helped the youngest children get their poles prepared and cast all the lines into the water.  Within minutes, three of the poles were bending! The kids were shouting, I caught one, I caught one, I caught one!  The commotion was great; the excitement intense! Sure enough, they had caught three fish! I was running all over the shoreline trying to get a picture of each one.   We threw the fish back in and started getting their lines in the water again.  Before we could get them all in, the kids were shouting again.  They had caught some more! 

My husband and I were filling bubbles and tying hooks as fast as we could go and still couldn't keep up. We would cast a line into the water and before long the tip was bending again. They were catching them in a steady stream.   Soon other people who were fishing along the shoreline started noticing our success.   They would stand on the shore and look at us with exasperated looks on their faces.  They would shake their heads in confusion and wonder what they were doing wrong. All the while, our children just kept right on catching them.  We were having tons of fun! 

Finally, after about two hours, we had a bit of a break.  I decided to cast my line in since the kids were having so much success.  There it sat.   I waited! and waited!! and waited!!!  I willed the tip to bend.  I went a little crazy and started talking to the fish again.  "Come on big fishy, you know you waaannt it!  Still nothing!  Some of the children were still catching around me, but my pole would not bend.  I finally got my husband, who seemed to have the Midas touch that day, to cast my line into the water.  I had noticed that every line he cast into the water caught a fish.  Sure enough, within minutes, my pole was bending.  The big fish had finally taken the bait.  I was excited!  What a thrill it is to catch a fish and get to reel it in!

We spent three wonderful hours fishing that morning.  We caught thirty fish and had three more that got away before we could get them to the shore. We decided to take a few of them home to eat. All of us went home feeling exhilerated and excited!  We knew we had just experienced something that doesn't happen everyday in the area that we live in.  The next day we had a fish fry,( or a bbq in this case) and invited all of our married children and their families to come for dinner. It was a good time!  We got great pleasure in telling our fishing story to them.  I realized that this story will be retold over and over again.  It will probably even be  passed down to the grandchildren for generations to come.  I am glad our fishing story isn't about the one that got away, but instead it is about the Best Fishing Day Ever!

~ Elizabeth