As a little girl I went fishing with my step-grandfather and thoroughly enjoyed the suspense of catching a fish. I did not quite enjoy when my hook or line got stuck in a tree or seaweed. I also was not fond of cutting off the head of the fish and scaling the fish after we caught it in order to eat it. In fact, at the time I did not even really like eating fish! Can you believe it? I really loved my step-grandfather, also called Pap-Pap. He was a very sweet man and I give him all the credit to what I know about fishing. We would sometimes go fishing in the Potomac and mostly places in Maryland. Whenever my hook or line was stuck he would fix it by putting on another hook or weight or bobber. He even made his own fishing hooks that I still have. He passed away several years ago and his fishing equipment was handed down to me. Of course, today I would rather have him with me fishing like old times.
Growing up fishing with my Pap-Pap was a great experience because he taught me eventually how to put the hook, weight, and bobber on myself. Also, I learned to fish without arrogance. My Pap-Pap was a modest man who was always happy as a clam. It was an outlet for him to fish and I have found that now fishing is an outlet for me as a woman. It has been years since I fished except for this summer. The last time I remember fishing was 8 years ago. I am glad that now I have found interest in it again and that it can be a good outlet to become calm.
In the last two weeks, I went fishing in Pennsylvania and I thoroughly enjoyed catching the fish that I caught. I had to help some kids that were with me to get their lines set up with hooks and bobbers. I even had to put the worms on because they did not want to or could not do it themselves. Then I found out that you need a fishing license so I went all out and got one. I was fishing earlier this week in PA and came across two brothers fishing alongside a creek where I was also fishing. However, I did not have my fishing pole set up yet so I was getting the line through the holes and everything and getting a little frustrated. Then there was a cute conversation that brought me to a flashback of times with my Pap-Pap:
I said to one of the brothers, "You're going to have to cut the line." His line was stuck straight up in the tree.
He said, "Can you do it for me?" and I said, "No, sorry. I can't."
Then later on the other brother said, "Did you put your line in the water yet?" and I said, "No, I just bought this pole yesterday so I'm getting it all set up."
I asked him, "What are you using for bait?" and he said, "worms." So I concluded with, "Cool." That's what I had too.
They had to leave and eat dinner at their campsite so I went to fish closer to where they had been fishing. The trees seemed more open there. Within twenty minutes I had my line stuck up in the same tree the boy had gotten stuck. The good news is if I caught a fish now I have the power to choose whether I would keep it and eat it (since I do like fish now) or throw it back and keep on fishing. The suspense of catching a fish is so cool even it does take forever sometimes to catch one. There could have been some karma in that conversation with the boy who got his line caught in the tree. When I left the creek area all by myself a little frustrated I remembered my Pap-Pap and how it can be an outlet to becoming calm. So yay! I like fishing and I have revived an old hobby.
