Fishy smelling hands...

As I'm sure you can guess from the title of this post, yes, I went fishing today. This was my first time out with a pole AND people to tell me how to fish! It's alot more fun when you're with people who actually know how to fish. I was a little nervous, mostly because I didn't want to end up all squeemish about touching a fish (I've only touched a fish one other time, and it was one I bought from the store to use for a class project and I couldn't bring myself to even touch it - by the way, don't ever bring dead fish into a classroom unless you have excellent ventilation). So my friends helped me set up my line (it broke from what I set before) and pulled off my cute fake bait and pointed at the minnow bucket. Ick! I'd have to touch a fish now, the moment was here! Well, one guy grabbed the minnow for me and showed me how to hook it. I cast, nothing, I cast again, my bait fell off. So he got another minnow but made me put the hook in him... I can do this, baby steps! A few more casts, and I lost the bait again. Now a few more people are out to help, but this time, they were all fishing and I felt wussy asking to have my hook baited, so I bit the bullet... and after several tries at catching a minnow (they startled me every time I felt them move in my fingers) I got a minnow and baited him myself. If I didn't fear falling in the water, I would have done a happy dance. I now can bait my own hook... with minnows. Leeches, well, nope not ready to touch those yet!

Now, I'm sure you're wondering, with all this trouble, did I actually catch something? I only caught 3, the least of anyone that went fishing. My first one, I don't remember, I was just so excited and surprised I caught something. The second was a bass of some sort (can't remember the name now - little guy about the size of my hand), and the third was a Sunny. The first 2 others took off for me, but I did get to throw the bass back, but by the time I got to the third fish, I was feeling pretty proud of myself that without even flinching, I grabbed the fish like they showed me, and after some wriggling, got the hook out, even with the bait, and put him back myself. Hence, the fishy smelling hands. It was fun, more fun than I expected, and I've learned that there's more than just sticking a hook out and pulling it up. There's timing to learn and techniques. I'm sure I'll learn more this summer and have future posts on fishing.

By the way, I've been told that now I'm fishing, next comes hunting... we'll see! That could be fun!! :)

Comments

Popular Posts