Family Time

So as a salaried manager I am expected to be at work whenever needed which is not necessarily open to close every day but in a small office that is in transition it's pretty close. I enjoy my new job immensely but like anyone I enjoy the opportunity to get out a couple of hours early and catch up with the family. Yesterday was my early day, leaving at around 3:30, I am open to close the rest of the week including Saturday and I have an after hours meeting tonight in a community near work. As I move into the professional ranks, it becomes increasingly important to balance work / life activities and remember to make a little time for what matters.

So yesterday afternoon we packed up a picnic and went down to Opeechee Park. Opeechee is nice because they have picnic facilities, playground facilities, and you can fish a little as well. Here's where the trouble started, on just the third day using my fishing pole the nob on top of my reel simply fell off mid cast and for the life of me I couldn't find it. The real then essentially was a big useless spool of thread. Say what you want about Wal-Mart but with no receipt or evidence that I even purchased the pole there I walked out with a new fishing pole in 15 minutes without a hassle. Which is good, because I go on vacation next week and it would be tough to fish with the Spidey pole everyday for a week.

Aside from my fishing debacles we had a great time, picnic, playground, and a quick stop at Dairy Queen after our detour to Wal-Mart (and yes I am familiar with the parking at Dairy Queen).

The Fish Story

For the first time in my life I, with my own two hands, have captured the elusive fish. This morning at around six I caught a very modest Largemouth Bass (for the totally uninitiated Largemouth Bass refers to the size of the mouth not the fish). He was about 7" and maybe a pound or two at best. Look don't laugh, I've only been fishing like three weeks and until yesterday I have been using a three-foot Spider-man pole. I have left the Spidey pole for the boy and upgraded to a Wal-Mart special, I bought a low end Ugly Stick by Shakespeare, stock line 6-lb test, a black night crawler lure, and some chartreuse Power Bait. I guess my personality is that I could care less about something for thirty years but if I am going to try it and get into it I really want to learn and understand the activity. So in the last three weeks I have actually done a lot of reading and research, basically learning how to fish.

The funny part is that I was so stunned to actually catch the fish that I was frantically scrambling to grab my little state magazine with pictures to figure out what I had, then I knew I had to let him go (Bass are catch and release until June15 for spawning). Then I was frantically trying to figure out how to get the stupid hook out of the guys mouth, Renee advised me to put a pare of pliers in the tackle box (I love that my wife is brilliant, could you imagine spending the rest of your life with an idiot). In the meantime I essentially used the finger sweep method to pull the hook out of the fish's mouth (thank you Army first aid training). Then I was able to toss him back and my prayers were answered as he swam away safely. I really didn't want to be a criminal the first time I caught a fish. The picture is of a largemouth bass (not mine, same idea but mine was a lot smaller and you know, not flying) the health and safety of our sporting friend was my first priority so I have no photographic evidence of my embarrassing catch (maybe next time).

Take Me Fishing

So the boy had mentioned a few times that he wanted to go fishing. God knows where he got the idea. Suffice to say my wife and I are definitely more gatherers than hunters. But when we went to get worms at the local bait shop for my wife's garden, we stopped to look at the water and the boy asked again. Now look at this face and imagine him asking, "Daddy, can you take me fishing?"

So I did what any couch potato would do, we turned around and marched back into the bait shop and bought a Spider-man fishing pole ($15) and picked up a guide so I could start studying. Yesterday we went back to buy a tackle box ($18), a license ($35), and a bag of cookies ($1, the boy wanted cookies). So know we are $69 into this venture, I have studied seasons, limits, maps, and weather reports for a week, and essentially I still know not a damned thing about how to fish.

This morning we were up and at 'em by 6:30 and we went to a local park/beach. It was windy, which probably should have been common sense to me if you look at the landscape behind the boy, and the temperature was cool. Surprisingly, the boy made it through two juice boxes, one lost lure and bobber, and an hour of fishing and had this smile on his face when we were done. We probably have no future as bass fishermen, but we had fun and no one was harmed but the rubber lures. I'm hooked.