Something’s fishy



We’ve had a three-week run of amazing weather here in south central Texas. It’s been a little too cool in the mornings for my taste, but by 10 a.m. it has been just beautiful. So when I found out that I had last Friday off from work, and my kids were off as well, I decided to take them fishing.

Now, I’ve said in this column before that I’m not much of a fisherman. I like it okay, it’s just not one of my favorite things in the world to do. I think I like the idea of going fishing on a beautiful day way more than I like the fishing itself.

My kids, however, love it. So like any good father, that’s what I decided to do with my day off.

So it was me, my three kids, my daughter’s friend and my dog all loaded up in the ol’ Jeep. When we added a case of water, the tackle box, a couple of fishing poles, a box of worms and a bucket, we were packed in there like sardines. And yes, I do see the irony.

My son and I threw a hook in the water as soon as we got there. Our plan was to use a couple of the worms to catch a few small perch, then use those perch or the rest of the worms to catch us a big catfish or maybe even a bass.

Right from the start, we were having trouble. We were both looking at dozens of perch right there in front of us, but the sneaky little rascals somehow kept taking our worms without getting hooked. Meanwhile, the girls kept bugging us about wanting to fish, too. I didn’t have enough fishing poles, so I just tied some hooks to some old string I found and let them have at it.

“Dad, those girls are taking our spot,” my son said.

“That’s okay buddy,” I told him. “If we aren’t catching anything, they won’t either. They’ll get bored in a couple of minutes and be gone before you know it.”

So I baited one of the hooks, then another one, and when I was putting a piece of worm on the third girl’s hook the first girl yelled out “I’ve got one!” I looked up, and sure enough one of my daughters had a little perch on her hook.

“Okay, just give me a second and I’ll..”

“I’ve got one too!” hollered my daughter’s friend. And while I unhooked those two fish- you guessed it- my youngest daughter pulls one out of the water.

After that, my son and I spent most of our time either baiting their hooks or pulling fish off of them.

“Number five!” my oldest daughter yelled.

“Number eight for me!” said her friend. And on, and on, and on.

And when I did get to fish, you wanna know what I caught? Two stinkin’ turtles. The first one was embarrassing, because it was in front of all the kids and it fooled me. I thought I had a big old lazy fish on the line, and I was talking trash to the girls the whole time I reeled it in.

“Whew hoo,” I laughed. “I’m gonna be eating good tonight girls, while y’all are eating fish sticks.” Then they all saw the turtle and laughed so hard they almost fell off the pier.

And of course, you know how the rest of the day went…

“Number thirteen!”

“Number fourteen!”