Monday, March 24, 2008

C'mon In. The Water's Fine!

My youngest child, Little Guy, has proven himself an able fisherman. He has spent the last three days on my aunt and uncle's dock with a cane pole and a bucket of Catawba night crawlers, catching bass and blue gill. Today he caught 18 fish!

I decided to try my hand at fishing, with the pole that the Hunny picked up at WalMart. To replace the cane pole which Little Guy snapped on his first catch - a big bass. Don't I look like I know what I'm doing? Not. Not a fan of the fishing. At all.





When I was in college, my Lil' Bro, who LOVED to fish, took me out with him one afternoon. He carried the poles and a paper bag full of cut up steak for bait. We lived at the mouth of the Mississippi River, where he usually caught red fish or bass - at least, that's what he brought home for dinner. Mmmm. He'd scale and gut them on the brick front porch, then hose everything down. One of the reasons I never fished was the "You catch it, you clean it" rule. Fortunately it didn't apply to eating it.

So we walked over the levee and Lil' Bro casts and casts. He comes up with a big blue crab and pops it into the steak bag, so I ask what he plans to do with that cute little crab. He says, "Kill it."

What am I supposed to do with that? Of course I tell him he's going to do no such thing! He laughed at me and cast again. Indignant, I reached into the bag and grabbed the crab.

Now y'all, growing up on the Mississippi, every time I'd come down the back side of the levee toward the river, hundreds of little fiddler crabs would go skittling in every direction, running for cover. We'd sit and wait for them to come back out, catching them by the rear, where they couldn't reach us with that one big ol' claw. They were so cute, and my friends and I would hold them by the rear and make them fight. Then let them go. So when I grabbed that blue crab, I knew enough to grab it by the rear, where it couldn't reach me with it's big claws. Yeah right. That sucker reached around and grabbed hold of my finger.

I flung that crab out across the rocks so fast! It went flying, bouncing on the rocks at the base of the levee. Me, screaming at the top of my lungs to my brother: "KILL IT! KILL IT!" Him: laughing. I think that was the last time I went fishing.



Until today. I still don't like it. But my Little Guy? His great-grandmother has convinced him that he needs to come visit often and keep fishing. I think he might just do that. Me? I'm coming back for the crawfish. :)

Until I write again (from home!) ...

Flea

10 comments:

The Sports Mama said...

Personally? I think its priceless (and extremely telling, actually) that you are all dolled up to go fishing. Earrings? Check. Brooch? Check. Pretty purple shirt rather than ratty ole' flannel? Check.

Love it! :)

Karen said...

I'm with Sports Mama. You are too pretty to go fishing. Clearly, it's not your passion. Mine neither.

dlyn said...

I am in love with your glasses!

Anonymous said...

I love fishing. Truly. I'm glad you and yours are having a great time.
The crab story is great! We used to fish with sand shrimp. Tiny, but their pincers go straight for your cuticles!

Marguerite said...

Ha Ha!

MMMmmmm... Big bro' brought home some really good dinners. :)

CanadianMama said...

I'm so glad that you finally posted some pics of yourself! I like your family but it's nice to see the lady behind the words sometimes!
I hate fishing too, actually I hate fish, all scaly and finny gross!

kay said...

awesome catch!!! personally i will fish if someone baits the hook and removes anything i catch. so i don't think that's fishing. really it's just holding the pole for someone else!

Lori said...

I like to fish and throw back. Then I can just buy some already cleaned at the store! Mmmm...Mahi-Mahi tacos anyone?

Anonymous said...

Great pictures! And I hate fishing...ever since the ONE time I did it and (we were doing the 'ol catch and release) my hook went straight thru the poor little fish's eye and my good friend Becky tried to "save" him and ended up killing it. Ugh.

Flea said...

LOL! I actually went down to the water to take pictures of Little Guy fishing, but the Hunny wanted to teach me more about the camera, an old Canon digital Rebel, and asked me to pretend I was fishing. Ew.