Fishing

I've taken the kids fishing a couple times this spring. James is still the most enthusiastic participant, and he pretty much begs every day until I can find a day/time that actually works for us. It's not that we've got a lot going on...thanks, Covid-19...but some days need to be gardening days, some days the kids take FOREVER to do their school work, some days there are scheduled Zoom meetings for one or more kids in the afternoon, etc. And as much as I enjoy fishing, I don't get to do it much while the boys are fishing with me. I set up the poles, bait hooks, swap hooks/bait as needed, and take fish off the line. It's a full-time job. Sometimes I don't feel like doing that.

On one of our sanity walks the other day, James found an enormous night crawler in the street. Rains the day before had flushed it out of its home and it didn't look to be in very good shape. James scooped up the worm and immediately ran home to put it in his newly-created "bait jar" in the fridge. He couldn't wait to fish with it! He asked several times a day. He talked about the giant large-mouthed bass he was going to catch with it. He smiled and rubbed his hands together thinking about how fun it would be to reel in that giant bass caught with his giant rescued worm.

The day finally came and we took his worms fishing. He wanted to fish with the big one first off! I bait the hook, cast it out there, and handed it over to him. He waited. He felt a good tug, reeled in the line, and found an empty hook. The disappointment was too much. He broke down and sobbed. I held him in a big hug as he buried his face into my jacket and mourned the loss of his favorite worm of all time. I was surprised by his reaction. I knew he wanted this to work, but I had somehow missed HOW important this worm was to him. A minute later, he got back to fishing. He and Robert caught 4 fish total and left the dock satisfied. I wish I had taken a picture or two. This was the first time we brought a bucket to put the fish into. This lake is all catch-and-release, but we liked watching them swim around in our bucket for a bit. It certainly kept Matthew's attention longer than regular fishing would have!