Think Like a Fish

When I was young in grade school, one of the things we did during summer vacation was to go fishing. It wasn’t a fancy formal thing, just a spur of the moment thing. My father was not one of those guys with a trophy wall of stuffed fish, just a simple guy who like to unwind near the water. If the summer evening presented itself with steamy haze in the air he would declare it a perfect night to go fishing. “Quick, eat supper & we’ll grab the poles”…and we did. In hindsight, I never realized just how much we looked like the opening sequence of The Andy Griffith Show with Andy & Opie strolling along the road in Mayberry with poles in hand.

If we had an ‘inkling’ earlier in the day, we would dig up the backyard for earthworms. I don’t know why, but we always had a bumper crop of the little critters under the cedar tree. If this was the spur of the moment fishing trip, then the fish had to settle for what was leftover in the refrigerator: bologna, bacon, bread, meatloaf, etc. Pack a Tupperware with bait and grab the bamboo poles with a string, hook & bobber for my brother & me. Dad had a reel on his with a fully equipped tackle box. Cool stuff was in there, smelly, but cool. It had an assortment of lures, weights, and bobbers with miscellaneous tools to accommodate the varying appetites of the fish.

“How do you know it’s a good night for fishing, Dad?” “Well, you gotta think like a fish. It’s been a long hot day & the fish have been hiding in the weeds to stay cool. Now’s the time they must come out to eat.” This sure sounded like pearls of wisdom to us. We didn’t exactly catch much often, but the ‘catch’ wasn’t necessarily the point of it all. One of the most important things to remember while fishing is to remain quiet. Being still by the water has its rewards. You can see bugs hover over the water & the fish jump. Birds will lazily walk along the beach, look at you & keep on going. The sun will mesmerize you while setting and you completely forget that you came to fish. Unbeknown to you, the day’s burden’s disappeared. Lucky fish do this everyday.

Upon returning home, “Were you successful tonight?” “Yes, even though we didn’t catch any fish”.

Cathy