"A grownup is a child with layers on." - Woody Harrelson
Peeling back the layers.
In all of my childhood, I went fishing one time. I was at my Uncle Hightower & Aunt Evelyn's camp on some lake. My older cousin Kim, wanted us to go fishing. It sounded fun. We went down the bank from the camp. I knew nothing about baiting a hook, so Kim had to do it for me. Then I knew nothing about casting. She gave me a brief lesson, and the first thing I did was to get my line hung up in the tree branches behind me! I'm beginning to think fishing isn't much fun. Finally, I'm free, baited up and my hook is in the water. After quite some time, Kim tells me I have something and to jerk the rod to set the hook. I jerked, but the fish jerked back harder than I ever expected! So the rod sails out of my hands and goes sailing off into the sunset. We have to go back and tell the adults I lost a rod. No one was none too happy. least of all me. I felt like a failure at something I never really wanted to do in the first place.
I don't recall if it was later that same day, or the next, some man who knew Uncle Hightower returned the rod to him. Said he saw it floating and got alongside of it to pick it up. Fish was still on it! He kept the fish, returned the rod. That eased my feelings, and I no longer felt like the little black sheep that lost the rod.
It would be fifteen years later in an aluminum boat over snags and in backwaters of Bush Lake with Ode Mae, using a cane pole, that I came to enjoy fishing.
Did you go fishing as a child? What was your impression of it? Got an amusing fish story? Did you ever feel like the pariah for being ignorant of knowing how to do something?
Thanks for sharing!
Barbara
Cool! I have some great memories of fishing with my Uncle. Of course I am still making a few more fishing memories.
ReplyDeleteThat's great, Mike! Makes for some great meals, too!
DeleteThat's such a funny story, although I'm sure it felt horrible at the time. My family made fun of me for getting lost on the way to my aunt's house. They're probably still laughing about it.
ReplyDeleteI used to go fishing with my parents, but I never actually did the fishing. It seemed cruel to me. And boring. :)
That was my only time as a child. I felt like a real loser until Uncle Hightower got his rod back!
DeleteI tried fishing once. Bored me near to death. These days I see people with four rods, electronic alarms and all manner of gadgetry, while they drink beer or doze in a chair. And they call it 'sport'. Ha!
ReplyDeleteWe sometimes choose to sit at the riverside or lakeside, relaxing and enjoying nature. That is an end in itself.
Keith Channing A-Zing from http://keithkreates.com
Hubby has fished over the years, on and off. He mainly does trot lines for catfish. I did enjoy perch fishing with Ode Mae, but it was more the company and the place than the fishing. Don't have any plans to do it again.
DeleteI don't have any fishing stories of my own, but David says that I can borrow his. :)
ReplyDeleteHe used to go fishing with his friend Roger. Roger would fish in a mud puddle if nothing else was available. Anyway, they would go fishing and Roger *always* caught something. Sometimes it was little somethings, other times it was big ones. David never caught anything. One trip, after getting frustrated watching Roger catch fish after fish while he caught nothing, David decided that they needed to swap rods. You know what happened? Roger still caught the fish and David didn't.
I take what I said in the beginning back. I do remember a fishing trip. In elementary school, we had a field trip to the Anderson County (South Carolina) Environmental Center. I remember sitting on the dock with a fishing rod. They let all of our class fish. Other people caught little fish. I have David's luck. I caught nothing. Maybe the fishes knew that I would some day be married to him. haha
Moral of the story, don't go fishing with Roger! LOL
DeleteI used to enjoy fishing as a kid. I remember practicing the castoff and accidentally hooked myself in the back. Had to go to the emergency room to have the hook removed. Dr said I was luck that if I had been any closer to my spine, I would have paralyzed myself. I took a few years off from fishing after that.
ReplyDeleteMary
#AtoZChallenge F is for Fitzgerald
Ouch! You must of really sunk it in. Mama worked for a local doctor before she married Daddy. She liked to tell the story of a young boy coming in with a hook in his lip, complete with a wriggling worm!
DeleteI fondly remember fishing as a child. My grandparents and other relatives were always trying to "teach" us the right way to fish. I just wanted to throw my line and reel it back in. I have pictures with fish that I have caught. Thanks for helping me think about those fun times and precious memories with family!
ReplyDeleteHappy to kickstart your memories! Ever notice that every fisherman's advice is different from the next ones?!
DeleteI remember fishing one time with my dad. He absolutely hated bullheads and he happened to catch one about the same time I caught one. My fish however had swallowed the hook, something I hated to deal with. So we reeled in our fish and exchanged dealing with the fish. He took the hook out of the fish who swallowed my hook, and I took the Bullhead and released it for him. I always wished we went fishing more often.
ReplyDeleteLOL Sounds like a good trade! Also, sounds like you and your dad had fun with it!
DeleteNope, never fished in my life. I did however get caught trying to catch crawdads in the creek with my brothers once. My dad made me get in the car and go home, but the boys were allowed to stay. Oh the injustice!:-)
ReplyDeleteOh, the injustice of it all!
DeleteI stayed at my Uncle Al's cottage on Cape Cod for a few days with my Uncle Eddie. We went fishing in the Cape Cod Canal, and I caught a couple of Pollock. He caught nothing, but I could tell he got more out of my success than he would have his own.
ReplyDeleteAwh! That's a neat memory! Thanks for sharing!
DeleteWhen we drive along the river here in the park I always tell John I wish I liked to fish. It seems like such a peaceful hobby. In the 50's I went with my husband and tried to bait my hook with gloves on except when we made dough balls.
ReplyDeleteBaiting a hook with gloves on has to be hard to do! I always have liked running trot lines with Pete. The quite, the time together that's what I enjoyed.
DeleteI have never been fishing, although I have been on a fishing boat when others were. I just like being on the boat...and eating the fish :) Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI think eating the fish is where I excel, too! Although I can cook a pretty decent mess of fish myself.
DeleteA wonderful theme this year. I carry the little girl I once was within me and she reminds me to play. Congratulations on a blog that is easy to read and navigate. So many of them are not and not worth trying to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Stepheny! I really appreciate your kind remarks! I feel like I am still pretty well connected to my inner child.
DeleteDid a little fishing with the Girl Scouts on some campout or other. Once or twice.
ReplyDeleteSounds like it didn't hook you. ;)
DeleteI vaguely remember fishing a couple of times as a child, mainly for... Bluegill, perhaps? As an adult, I've been fishing two or three time with my aunt and uncle. It's more like my uncle baits and does everything, then we sit back on the boat and wait for something to happen. If it is the rod nearest me, then I reel it in.
ReplyDeleteVisiting from AtoZ. Have a good one!
Sounds like an easy, happy way to fish to me.
DeleteI loved to fish in my great grandma's creek with my cousin. Looking back, we didn't get to do it frequently, but it was always a favorite time.
ReplyDeleteCherdo
Cherdo on the Flipside
"Favorite Characters, Favorite Lines" on the A-to-Z Challenge 2016
That's the wonderful thing about memories, you don't have to have done anything often for it to be special.
DeleteNever went fishing. I thought it was cruel to the worm...lol
ReplyDeleteCheryl
Plucking Of My Heartstrings
Yeah, the worms and minnows get a rough deal. Although hubby has put out soap lines many times in the backwaters.
DeleteWe did fish with cane poles for catfish, but not often. I thought fishing was rather boring waiting ...and waiting...and waiting for the fish to bite.
ReplyDeleteSunni
http://sunni-survivinglife.blogspot.com/
It can be. If you white perch fish and you find a spot where they are really biting, you can throw in a hook with almost anything and they'll hit it.! I enjoyed my times doing that very much. But really have no desire to do it anymore.
Delete