When Fishing Isn’t About Catching Fish

My son wanted to go fishing. We’d postponed it a day, but today was the day. He could barely wait, but several things had to be done first. I had work to do and so did the rest of the family.

But by late afternoon, we were on our way. The first thing I said to him was, “I’m sorry it took so long, but I’m glad we’re going.”

“That’s OK,” he replied cheerfully.

We talked as we walked to the pier.

“You can fish too if you want,” he said, offering to sacrifice his own enjoyment for mine, as we have only one rod–a batman kid’s rod.

“I’ll help you cast if you want, but I’ll probably just watch and talk to you,” I offered.

We arrived at the pier and I prepared the bait (a lump of wheat bread formed into a ball). After several failed attempts, we tried a new strategy: simply lowering the hook and bobber into the water where we could see it, and trying to get the small bluegill to bite.

It worked! Not more than 5 minutes after employing our new strategy, my son had caught a fish about the size of my hand. I removed the hook and released the fish. “Let’s try to catch another,” I said.

“I doubt we will,” came the reply.

“Don’t doubt yourself–you just caught one, and I’m sure you can do it again!” I encouraged. “Always believe in yourself; I believe in you,” I told him.

“Do you have your phone?” he asked.

“Yes, why?”

“Can I call Mom and tell her we caught a fish?”

“Sure,” I smiled.

He made the call, and left a message when Mom didn’t answer. I prepared the line for another attempt, and we tried to lower the bait a little further, thinking there might be some larger fish deeper in the water.

We were right. Not long after, we watched our bobber disappear, and my son yelled, “Reel it in, Dad!”

I couldn’t. The fish was too large for the meager strength of the rod we were using. I had to grab the line and pull it in hand over hand. It was a 14″ bass, probably about 4 pounds. We were both pretty surprised.

I released the fish, at the cost of cutting the line, which meant our fishing trip was over.

“That’s OK,” my son said. “I’ve caught 3 fish in my life now, and that last one we caught was the biggest of all! I’ve never seen a fish that big so close! And I helped you catch it by telling you when to reel it in.”

“That’s right.”

And next time, he will believe in himself even more.

~ by stoshdwalsh on October 12, 2009.