Gone Fishin'

GUEST POST BY DADDY: Ahhh, the glorious Snyder family pastime...NOT! For those that know me, fishing ain't my gig. I don't like fish, I don't eat fish, and I definitely DO NOT touch fish. I don't even like to swim around fish, they do their thing, and I do mine. I've lived the better part of the past 20 years by these rules and all was good in both our worlds...then came "the derby". Our community had a fishing derby for kids, and being that I love to do new things with my kids, I figured this would be fun. I mentioned it to my kids on a Tuesday, and they asked me twice a day every day until Saturday "Is today the day we go fishing?" or "How many sleeps till we go fishing?"

Very cute, and I thought deep in my heart that given my affliction for fish, I'd be able to put all that aside and help the kids fish. The day couldn't have been better, beautiful sunshine, no wind, nice and warm, but not too hot. We got to the park, borrowed our pole and they had bait and everything all set up (marshmellow bait, nice, no worms, that's another blog). Emery and Ty took turns "fishing" for about a half hour before we switched spots. They got tired and bored and started playing in the water, so I was left to cast and reel my way to a fish. After all, I promised them we would catch at least one (they dumped 3500 fish in the two ponds, we had to catch at LEAST one!)

So I sat there for the better part of another half hour sometimes holding my own, others looking like the captain of the reject fishing team (a couple casts even hit my feet). Just as the kids (and Dad) were about to give up (I just lost the little bobbler that keeps the line floating) our luck changed. FISH ON!!! Emery and Ty came running over, Ty did his work first, reeling in this giant monster of a fish as it was thrashing and jumping in and out of the water, and then he got tired, so big sister Emery came on and she reeled it in the rest of the way. The little girl did so well, even brought it up out of the water and everything.

Now for the fun part, Uncle Bob if you are reading this please keep the pink gloves and dress comments quiet. I REALLY don't like fish, and it's not just eating them, it's touching them. But all day I convinced myself I was cool, it's a small little trout, no teeth, no barbs to sting you, etc. I could handle it. Well when that beast of a fish looked me in the eye, something happened. All my positive thinking of "sure, I can take the fish off the hook" went out the window and no matter what, I couldn't bring myself to grab the darn thing! Luckily Ty had found some needlenose pliers on the shore and with those, and my foot, I was able to get the hook out of the fishes mouth, push the fish back into the water (I sure as HECK wasn't going to take it home and clean it) and we finished our fishing saga. See Uncle Bob, I didn't even need your stinkin gloves this time ;)

So that's that, my kids first fishing experience in the book. Will they remember the long morning of cast after cast without a bite? Not hardly. Will they remember all the times the line bobbed and they reeled it in only to find another bait theft had occured? Nope. They will remember a fun time playing down by the river with dad, and the fish they caught and got to reel in all by themselves. I think that's what I choose to remember too, 10 years from now does it matter how the fish got off the hook?

Here's hoping (and praying) that they learn to grab the fish by next year's derby!