Last Day of Fishing As A Child

Last Day of Fishing As A Child 

Each of us has a last day of something, whether it be golfing, driving, knitting or even fishing. For me it was fishing. I remember that day with all my heart; it was not one of my best of efforts or for that matter, outcomes. 

I was 10 years old and I had many adventures with trying to catch fish of varying types and sizes. As a child growing up, I would learn from the older and more experienced fishermen, that is, when to fish and where to fish. Many would say, “It is best to fish when it rains!” And yet others would say, “The best time is just before it rains!” Well for me, I usually did catch something, but many times, it was not fish. It usually was something like a cold instead. Over time, I felt that I did become an expert in that arena (cold setting), but it did not deter me from my ultimate goal, and that was in enjoying myself on the river. 

With fishing it becomes a game of chance at times.  I found though at the ripe age of ten that being a good fisherman one had to have the best of everything.  I just knew that if I could afford the best fishing equipment, I would be the envy of many a fisherman and perhaps might even become a famous angler one day, (locally that is).  With that in mind I was more than motivated, and I was determined with all my heart in catching the “Really big one!” To reach this lofty goal, I set out for myself the target of having the best rod, the best real, the best bait, and of course the best place to find my huge monster. 

In obtaining this great feat, I needed to work, and work was is in fact what I did.  I walked so many bean fields that after a while all I saw were bean rows upon bean rows, even in my dreams.   Each day I put up with the agony of wet pants (and underwear) from the early morning dew.  Not only did I walk around squishing like a fish from being so wet, I endured raw and bloody hands from pulling so many weeds that were many times bigger than myself. This though did not deter me from purchasing my ultimate weapons.  After a few weeks of pulling weeds, I had earned enough to buy the newest reel that was just introduced, the Zebco 202. I was finished with open reels that were always getting tangled up into knots. One always had to spend as much time or more in untangling the knotted string on your reel as that of fishing. The new Zebco 202 all but eliminated this problem. The one challenge that would soon visit my dreams though was one that my new rod and real could not fix, that of arrogance, pride and stupidity. Nothing was said in the instructions on my new fishing equipment in how to overcome that challenge.

The day finally arrived for me to purchase my dream.  I walked into the store and asked for their newest pieces of fishing gear. I bought the lightest and strongest pole for my reel. It was made of fiberglass and it had a black base with red stripes on it. Really cool to look at with almost a racing stripe finish that would be the best and coolest looking fishing rod around. Lastly, I was going to use a new rubber lure that looked just like a wiggling worm. I was done with getting up in the middle of the night, walking down to Ashley Park in the rain trying to catch night crawlers which

were forced to come to the surface due to fact that their dens were full of water. I could identify with them completely about having to be where I didn’t want to be, “Out in the rain!” After about an hour of catching slimy night crawlers, I was totally soaked and ready to head home, take a shower and crawl into bed so I could get forty winks to keep from falling asleep in class the next day. This part of my life was now over, and I was on the road to easy street. I would now have stringers full of fish with no more effort in catching them than just having to breathe. 

Saturday was the day that would change my future in fishing. I would catch the big ones with ease and the older fishermen would praise me for getting the fish of a lifetime. I could also describe to them how easy it was with my new rod and reel. I just knew that they would be envious, and I imagined that the Coast-to-Coast store would have a great barrage of senior fishermen rushing into their store wanting the new Zebco 202 with the racing stripe fishing rod just like mine. 

My day started out, as did every Saturday at our house, except this morning I was the first one up. My brother Mike (12 years old) wanted to go along to see how the rod and reel would turn out, so I let him tag along. Normally it was the other way around, being the big brother, Mike would set the pace and inform me what I needed to do to spend time with him. I would always eagerly accept his terms just to spend even an hour with my big brother, but today the tables were turned. I don’t think my chest could have puffed out any further than it did at that moment when leaving the house while heading to the dam. My brother always fished next to the power plant where the waters were deep and calm, but today I saw huge Northern Pike leaping the swift currents right in the middle of the dam where the current was very fast. Throwing all caution to the wind, I was determined that this was the place for me, and I just knew I would catch one of those big ones for sure.  But first, I had to walk back over the bridge and back down the other riverbank to get out into the rapids below the dam.  When leaving my brother, I could see the apprehension on his face.  I wanted to rack it up to him not wanting me to show him up by me bringing home the bigger fish, but in the back of my mind I knew it was something more.  Regardless, I wasn’t going to allow my conscious to dictate terms to my superior intellect.  As I climbed up the riverbank to my brightest future and destiny, I happened to see an older fisherman down river from where I was. My first thought was, “I will have an impartial witness to see my superior fishing skills and witness how the new state of the art rod and reel really work.”  

In looking back at that time in my life, I can see now how the proud are humbled, and that one doesn’t need to hold a lofty place in society to learn humility.  But, for the moment, that lesson was lost due to the fact it was deeply hidden in the recesses of my mind, and the only way I was going to let it out was by the total surrender of my ego.  Humility and myself were not on speaking terms at the moment, but I would soon learn that this future state of mind would patiently wait for me in the wings.  

When entering the swift current below the damn I realized it was going to be more than a challenge.  I could see my brother watching me from a distance and I was determined to prove to him that I was the better fisherman.  That thought alone kept me going when reason should have told me that I was being a total nincompoop for even attempting this idiotic venture into futility.  Non-the-less, I wasn’t going to let common sense dictate to me what I could and couldn’t do.  In my mind I was past the point of reason and I was now entering into the realm of pure commitment.  I had just passed the point of no return; all that was left to do was to carry out my duty in following through with my heart.  So, I kept heading into the deep churning current

straight ahead. I intently focused my eyes on the giant Northern Pike jumping way out in the distance so as to ignore the alarms going off in my head.  As I slowly slid my shoes ahead onto the cement platform that was buried in almost a foot and a half of thundering current, my thoughts of getting the big one shrouded my reason and I kept moving along into oblivion.  It took me about ½ hour to reach my goal, but the problem of stability was the greatest challenge facing me at the moment.  The rapid current kept me sliding towards the edge of the cement platform where the buried boulders were lying in wait to swallow little boys up like myself.  Then a revelation came to me in a flash, “Just go ahead and slide off the platform and try to wedge one leg in the huge rocks and one on top of a sunken boulder!”  So, I let the current slide my feet to the edge of the precipice where I was fortunate enough to land on a slimy boulder.  I dropped one leg in front of submerged rock while perching the other on top of this slippery boulder.  This is working perfectly, now I would catch the fish of a lifetime.  At that moment I looked up and saw the senior fisherman watching me as well as my brother Mike.  I just knew they thought, “There is a young man with guts!”  Later though, my brother would share with me what he really thought, and you can put the puzzle pieces together by what he did in fact say to me.

Not to be undone by danger all around, I cast my line out into the churning cauldron of froth, hoping that these struggling giants would be more interested in my lure than any Immersed parts of my anatomy.  Noticing the force of the current against my weakening thighs and hips led my fears to start rising to unbelievable heights, and now they were reaching unseen levels in my brain.  Then it happened, a giant Northern jumped out of the water right in front of me and my fears suddenly became reality.  At that moment, reason didn’t seem to make its home in my mind.  I became so frightened that I felt that I would become more appealing bait than what was at the end of my line.  If that was not enough, my foot felt something move under me.  

I knew that monsters were hiding in the depths of the water, because I had just met one a month earlier.  My brother Ken and I were fishing in the deep waters by the power plant when I lost my best lure to something that seemed to pull the opposite direction when trying to draw it in.  In desperation, I pulled with all my strength and it started to move toward me.  When I thought I had the catch of a lifetime, my line snapped, and I went flying backward on to the rocks behind me.  My fleeting moment of rapture was gone, and my heart dropped into the depths of despair when I thought of losing such an expensive lure. I was determined not to squander my chances on another attempt at this lost adventure, so I waded into the deep and then dove down to find my expensive lure.  Gasping for breath, I exploded up out of the water with a portion of a fence on my shoulder.  It had been lying on the bottom of the river.  A storm must have drug it down stream with the raging currents and dropped it in the calm deep lagoon by the power plant.  When dragging it to the shore, I found that it took all of my strength.  Once safely on the sandy beach, I realized that I had retrieved the haul of a lifetime.  Lures and hooks were seen gleaming in the sun like many diamonds on a ring.  At that moment, greed was my friend.  I very delicately picked off each beautiful lure and put my treasure into my tackle box.  I looked at my brother, smiled, and then threw the fence section back into the water. He asked me what I did that for, and I told him that many other fishermen will soon catch their lures on this wire fence like I did, and I will then have another treasure trove in a very short time. All I have to do is dive back down to retrieve the fence once again.  I told Ken that I could get such a catch of lures as to be set for life.  He looked at me and went, “Hmm!” He then walked away shaking his head, but the way I dealt with a guilty conscious was to look at what I could gain from my treasure, all the while trying to ignore my better angel who was already pricking my conscious fearlessly.  Obstinacy soon won out though, but my better angel was not done with me yet.   About a week later I dove into the spot where I had dropped the fence section earlier.  I finally found it after feeling the muddy bottom for what seemed like an eternity.  I had forgotten how long I had been under water when all of a sudden I realized my head was starting to spin from lack of oxygen.  I launched off the muddy river bottom pushing with all my might to the surface, just barely making it to where air greeted my lungs with ecstasy.  Realizing my victory was just a few strokes away, I turned my head for shore, but as I rotated my body around, I looked with horror at what was in front of me.  It was the biggest snapping turtle I had ever seen.  

Its head was about 4 inches across, and its mouth was gaping wide open with the top portion of its lip shaped into the biggest hook that I had ever seen.  The shell was about two feet across and I knew if he or she did not want me in its water, that I could soon be missing a body part.  I quickly dropped the fence into the deep as I swam parallel to the shore and then veered twenty feet down stream, before heading to the safety of the shoreline.  Nature had a way of helping me to see that my desires for wealth needed to be tweaked into another plan for later on.  And now I could see that using advanced technology in fishing, I would soon be famous and sought after, it was my Eldorado, that of catching the biggest Northern in the river, that is if it didn’t catch me first.  

Feeling something move under me made me think that perhaps the boulder that I had planted my foot on was not a boulder after all.  Was it indeed the giant snapping turtle that I had encountered a month earlier?  If it was then I might be finding that I would have to go the rest of my life without a leg, or worse!  Panic rose in my brain and all I could think of was to try to get to the safety of the cement platform to my right.  But how could I do that since this moving boulder or snapper was moving downstream in the opposite direction?  I then made a giant leap up the ragging current hoping to reach the cement platform of safety.  But, by doing so I lost my footing and went headfirst into the swift current.  The next thing I knew was that I could not hold on to my rod and reel and hope to stay above the water, so I let my dreams disappear into the white rapids all around me.  Thinking I now could swim towards the dam with both hands free I soon found that I was being taken down river.  Before I knew it, I was about 75 yards downstream and still moving very quickly away from the dam.  My arms started to feel like lead and the weight of my clothes and boots were pulling me under.  In panic I looked towards shore and saw the elderly fisherman hollering at me with all his lungs could muster, “Swim downstream and then swim to shore!” It didn’t make sense to me, but I went against my better judgment (which got me into this trouble in the first place.)  I desperately turned towards shore, it was so hard to do at this point, since now my body was agonizing with pain and my strength was almost gone.  I lifted one arm after another saying to myself, “Just lift your arms, one at a time!”  I forced my body to obey my commands when all it wanted to do was stop and rest, but I knew if I did, I would succumb to the depths of the beckoning river, calling me to its shadowy home.  When I felt that I could go no further, my hand struck the shore bottom.  I then slowly raised my head only to see the older fisherman I seen earlier, extending his hands in an attempt to pull me the rest of the way out of the water.  I grabbed his hands only to fall into the shallow water once again. He came out into the stream to hold me and help my unresponsive legs into remembering how to walk again. Sitting on a dry boulder, I looked up at him, I then made a weak attempt to smile and thank him, but all that came out from my mouth was river water that I was coughing up.  I looked out into the raging water and I knew in my heart that what I attempted to do was all for fleeting fame and glory, and this foolish venture not only cost me my new purchases, but it almost cost me my life as well.  

In the coming days and months I would go over this learning adventure in my mind, many times over.  I was given another chance to look at life through new eyes and a new heart.  Humility did visit me that day, and in many moments of recollection since.  I came to realize that the best way to capture life was not to gather it in one momentous event, but to enjoy its pleasures in the small things of life that many of us see as commonplace.  I also realized that fame is fleeting and like a slippery fish, hard to hold on to.  There are many monsters in life that can either stop us from taking chances or strengthen us in our resolve to be better than what we are today.  One though must learn that these giants are here to teach us to know about our abilities and the limits that are found in testing them.  Wisdom is the child that is given to those that learn the difference.  The greatest gift that is gained is not in the prize that is sought after, but that which has been learned.