A Fish Tale

Perhaps some of you have heard this tale, but I thought it should be entered into our family blog because it is one to be remembered. Andrew has had an obsession with fishing this summer. He has spent endless hours over in the small tributary that runs near the white river across the street with his fishing pole. He has caught a number of small as in 2 inch little fish that have come home in a sour cream carton and put into the aquarium. Some of them have been relocated to our small pond above the waterfall. I have wondered how they have enjoyed Sam's bathing habits in that pond.
We made several trips to Deep Lake to fish this summer and took Sam and Trey Rodarte along to join in the fun. We discovered that Sam really doesn't like fishing because it requires standing still for long periods of time. But he is very good at running around on the dock looking for anything that looks remotely like a fish. (And in his excitement, warning any fish that might be caught that they should turn and swim the other way quickly.) Andrew and Trey would sit for hours and even though they never had a nibble, they didn't get discouraged, they knew it would happen any minute.
One morning on my early morning bike ride, I noticed a sign that invited children 10 and under to fish in someone's personal pond just down the road near the fair ground. Andrew and I rode our bikes down to see if we could see it later and it was gone. The next day it was back and so I asked Paul to take Andrew down to go fishing. The boys went and sure enough this man had a pond in his yard stocked with trout. Andrew excitedly caught a fish very quickly. Paul also caught a fish. They were good sized trout. But when Andrew asked if he could take the fish home in a bucket to put in his pond the man said, No way!" Drew then asked him if he could put him back and the guy told him that he didn't do catch and release. The man then took out his baseball bat and hit the fish over the head much to Andrew's shock and dismay. He made him promise to have his mom cook the fish so that it wasn't wasted. I don't think Andrew enjoyed or even tasted the fish we had for supper that night. The mighty fisherman a little humble!
I am wondering if it is the colder weather or cold hard facts of fishing that have slowed down that obsession.
With love,
Mom