Yesterday was Sunday, but there was no sun. In fact it was cloudy and rainy. We had promised the kids we would take them fishing. After looking at the radar on our old friend, weather.com, we saw that where we were heading to fish, it wasn’t raining…well, at least not as hard as it was at the house.
We packed up the van, and headed down to Clayton. It’s about a 45 minute drive. The kids were very excited.
After stopping for worms {for the fish} and bananas {for us} we arrived at the little pond.
We unpacked and started baiting hooks.
These two cuties were so excited.
The first line was cast and within minutes {meaning less than 2}, Dallas had already caught a fish.
Then it was Hunter’s turn. He was a little skittish at first, but he quickly acclimated himself and jumped into the fun.
When I tell you that the second we cast a line a fish was on, I’m not exaggerating too much. I think the most we waited was about 5 minutes, but that was when I ventured away from the platform area.
Because the fish were biting so fast, the kids were constantly reeling in, and we were letting the fish go, we couldn’t bait the hooks fast enough. “We” meaning Eric.
You see, I grew up fishing…bass fishing in a boat, on a lake. I also fished off the pier at Daytona Beach every summer. As much as I enjoyed fishing as a child there were two things I wouldn’t do…1 – bait a hook and 2 – take the fish off the hook. Nope, not this southern girl. Hey, I had a granddaddy and daddy for that.
Well, that all changed yesterday. The sun wasn’t shining, but I know my granddaddy was shining down on me and my daddy’s thinking, “that’s my girl”… I’m sure they are so proud because I learned how not only to cut the worm, but bait the hook, and take the fish off those hooks.
But that’s where I drew the line….I was not throwing that fish back into the pond. They’re scaly, slimy, and they wiggle and jump. Now don’t think I didn’t try. I did. I tried a couple of times, but those slippery little suckers would jump out of my fingers and fall straight to the rocks below. Eric would have to come and fish {no pun intended} them out and put them in the water. Luckily, we didn’t lose any.
We mostly caught brim. I caught the first small mouth bass,
and then Hunter got one as well.
Poor Eric didn’t get much fishing in for himself. I tried to help the kids some so he could cast a few lines, but we were always running into trouble. I was either getting lines unstuck out of the bushes, “tossing” the fish into the rocks, or getting a hook stuck in my face.
Yes, you read that correctly…shhh, don’t tell my Mama; she might worry. It really wasn’t as big of a deal as it seemed in the moment. Eric was about 5 yards from us. I was trying to get one of the kids’ lines out of the bushes. I guess I yanked a little too hard and it jerked out and of course right in my cheek. I REALLY tried hard not to freak out because my kids were right there. I politely yelled, “Honey, there’s a hook in my face!” I was freaking out on the inside! The kids then freaked out. Eric, being my Prince Charming, came to my rescue once again. Luckily it really wasn’t lodged in my skin. It was just kind of stuck there. It didn’t even break the skin…Whew!
He got it out, and I really wanted to cry with relief, but the kids, bless their hearts, were really worried about me. So, I put on my big girl panties, or maybe just a smile and assured them I was fine and everything was ok. I had to get right back on that horse and bait more hooks because by granny there were more fish to be caught.
We had the best time!
I’m so blessed to have had a childhood made of fishing memories just like my kids will. I wouldn’t say it’s “relaxing” as a parent, but it is fun to see the excitement in my children’s eyes as they reel in their “catch” and see how big a fish they caught. The proudness that exuberates from them fills me up.
We might have had a non-sun Sunday, but it was such a Fun-day!
No comments:
Post a Comment