Fishing is a sport. Like golf, it is also a popular, leisure activity here in the Sunshine State. I have a good number of friends who over the years, have consistently invited me to go fishing with them. I've never gotten into it for reasons about to be discussed.

I respect fishing and those who enjoy it. I have several friends with boats who love to fish. My former boss used to actively compete for sailfish and fare pretty well for himself. He even had one of his prize catches hanging in the office. ESPN airs that fishing show every Sunday morning that I bear through until the Sports Reporters comes on, those rare weekend mornings that I'm actually out of bed.

My patented response when people ask me to go fishing is that I can buy my fish at the local supermarket. In those nice little display cases, they have tuna, salmon, grouper, whatever I want, and I don't have to gut or scale the darned things. My friends have explained repeatedly that fishing is about camaraderie and competition and drinking and getting away from things and more drinking and I'm all for that. Fishing just has never floated my boat. No pun intended.

Here's why.

Many years ago, my mom and I moved from New York City to Tampa, Florida. I was about 12 years old and, as I was raised by a single mom, she thought it might be a good idea to take me out and do some 'guy things.' Even then, I was reluctant. When she mentioned fishing, I asked her if would be able to catch tuna fish, nova, or fish sticks, a line that still gets tossed around at family dinners. We were from Manhattan. The only fish I knew was the smoked salmon we bought from Zabaar's. That was fresh, tasty and served up right there for you. Why go through the trouble of having to fish it out of the ocean? Plus my aunt had taken me to see Jaws at an early age. Jarring. At six years old, I had my head buried in her lap the entire movie.

So one day, mom bought a couple of cheap fishing poles and we headed out to the Courtney Campbell causeway. I forget what type of bait we used but I don't see either of us hooking worms or shrimp heads or whatever other items fishermen use. She even bought one of those K-Mart special fish kits even though we didn't really have anything to put in it. We didn't know what we would have done had we actually caught a fish. I sure as hell wasn't going to cut the thing open and I'm pretty sure she wasn't either. We probably would have just tossed it back into

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