by L. Shell Madden

Created on: June 04, 2008

Gone Fishing I used to fish with my Dad. From the time I was seven until I turned fourteen, every weekend during fishing season, barring Dad being away or the weather so bad the ducks wouldn't go out on the lake, he and I would load our little boat and off we'd go. Now my Daddy is a lure fisherman, the lazy whizzzzz, plop, zip, zip, zip of him casting and reeling will be with me for ever. He had pretty good luck too. There were usually three or four bass on the stringer when we came in. Not that the fish were what it was about No, it was father, daughter time. We would talk, or not, as seemed right, but we did it together. Me, I'm your bobber and sinker kind of fisherman, I'd toss out my line, apply my sun tan lotion, and sit back to read, or chat as the day unfolded. In the very nearly seven years we fished together I never caught a fish, and to me it didn't matter, I just loved the time However, there came a day, just about a week after my birthday when Daddy notice my lack of catch He'd had a really good day, there were four bass on the stringer and he had just caught a pike to add to it, when he looked up at me and remarked on my general lack of fish. I allowed how it didn't matter all that much, I was having fun anyway. Then he did a little thinking and realised I'd never caught a fish, which to him seemed odd That was when he started asking about what I was using for bait Before I could react and prevent it, he had my line in his hand and was hauling it out of the water Sure enough, there it was, bobber, sinker, leader and. Nothing. No bait, not even a hookHe demanded I explain myself, so I did "Look Daddy, If I put bait on there, I'm gonna have to touch a worm, or something worse, so I don't put bate on it. I stopped putting hooks on when the next-door neighbour kid started bragging he was catching fish with a shiny hook. Seems wrong to prey on something that stupid, and I don't want to accidentally catch one just swimming by. Besides, if I do catch one you are for sure gonna make me take it off the hook, and that's just yucky. Once it's off the hook, you'll make me clean the stupid thing and that is gross. And I think the worst of it is, once I catch it, take it off the hook, clean it, I know you'll insist I eat the awful thing, and Daddy, I hate fish" There was dead silence in the boat, he packed everything up and we headed in to the cottage It was almost the end of the summer, and we didn't get back on the lake that year. The next spring, we just didn't go, Dad was away, or it was raining, or any number of other excuses and pretty soon our fishing days were over. Years later, I was visiting my folks at their winter home in Florida and somehow the topic came around to fishing I reminded Daddy of that day and we were both quiet for a while "You know Daddy, it wasn't ever about the fish but I had the greatest time just sitting in that little boat with you." At the end of the week, when they drove me to the airport, just as I was about to board the plane Daddy gave me a big hug and said, "How 'bout you and me going fishing this summer?" "I don't know Da, I'm not sure I have a fishing rod anymore." "Does it matter?" We didn't bother to go out on the lake that year, but we do spend a lot of time, sitting by the shore, looking out over the water, talking sometimes, other times just sitting when a neighbour asked my mother what we were doing she just laughed and said, "Fishing without a hook, its an old family tradition".

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