Some Time With The Boy

I took my son fishing for a few hours yesterday. It was our third time out, and like the previous two, I wasn't all that thrilled about it. I love the outdoors, but fishing is one thing I never got into. But a friend of mine was out with his son and invited us to join them, and my son wanted to go, so we met them at a small pond on the other side of town.

Fortunately, the fish were biting. On his third cast my son hooked his first fish ever, a small sunfish, and in so doing hooked himself, and me by proxy, to the sport of fishing. I was content to watch him fish and bait his hook for him (the attitude shared by my friend with his son, even though my friend is a respectable fisherman), and sat on the banks watching his casts. Over the course of 90 minutes or so my son caught 5 fish (all sunfish) and had himself a grand time. It was by far the most fun I've ever had fishing.

To cap off the day, the final fish my son caught was a "miracle catch": snagging a fish with a bare, unbaited hook. As he was making his final casts, I was kidding with him about being so Zen in his fishing. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when the bobber sank, he yanked, and reeled in his second largest fish. (None of them were large enough to keep, but that's beside the point.) Guess that will teach me to get all mystical on a nine-year-old...