Unexplored Territory

Thursday, August 02, 2007

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Dead Fish

I had mentioned before that I love to fish. I really do. But don't ask me to do anything other than to cast my line into the water.

Wax worms and a hook .... don't do them.

Taking the fish off the hook .... can't do that, especially when the little bugger swallows the hook and you have to get the pliers out to do a little fish surgery that never ends well.

We set off for the marina at the state park where the inlaws had launched their boat. While we were waiting on the dock, and the kids were getting MIGHTY pissed off at having to wear their life vests when they were just sitting around, we let them walk around for a while.

Now, not only do I have a fear of heights, I also have a fear that one of my kids is going to go plummeting into some body of water and not be able to save themselves. Now, the Monkey is really the only one I need to worry about. The Man and Queen can sort of take care of themselves.

So when Ace started walking around with the kids on the dock, and the Monkey kept lying down on her belly to look at the fish, I knew that something was going to happen.

See if you can tell what that is.....

Once the hat was fished out of the water, it was set to dry on the boat. It was ok.... she got over it.

We took off for a cove where my FIL wanted to find a place on the shore so we could fish. We weren't keeping anything; they fish mainly for bluegill and shell crackers, but said that the fish haven't been big enough because of the lack of rain in the area.

We found an area, put the worms on the hook, and put the old lines in. The Barbie fishing pole was the first winner of the day. That pole belongs to the Monkey. She was thrilled, as you can tell.

The Man also caught one .... I think this is a precious picture.

And what about the Queen? She is an avid fisherwoman. Always has been. She always catches the most, and she is cocky about it. We just don't take pictures of her catching fish anymore....

The first little fish that happened to be on the Monkey's hook decided that he wanted that worm, so he swallowed the whole hook. When I see that, I just say "Ace.... get the pliers" and he sets to work. I don't know if it was because they swallowed them so far, or Ace sucks at getting hooks out of fish, but needless to say there were a few unnecessary deaths that day. The Monkey's fish was one of them.

When they are so close to the bank, the inlaws just throw their dead ones up on the bank. So the FIL instructed the son to do that very thing. I guess the fish heard this, and made a last ditch attempt to return to his fish family in the water. He jumped out of Ace's hand, flopped back into the water and we all held our breath to see what happened next.

And up he floated. He was still sucking for air, but it was only a matter of time.

My FIL kept getting the oar out to shove the fish away.... but it kept floating back to us. Then the other fish started to work on it. Nobody really wanted to watch that. About the third time that my FIL shoved the fish away and it floated back to us, he decided to get a net.

And then the Monkey started to get upset.

Is .... is that fish..... DEAD?!?!!??!?!?

Not wanting her to be upset about the demise of the fish, I said "oh no, honey ... Gramps is just going to throw him out into the lake farther so he stops following us." It worked.

Labels: fishing, summer vacation

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...: so great Mer..you are such a good story teller..and LOOK AT THOSE PICS!! Those are crying to be scrapbooked!; 7:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Pretty much it is a given that if a fish swallows a hook so that pliers are required to retrieve, the fish is gonna die.

Love the pictures.

And it cracks me up that you no longer take pictures of the Queen and her fish. That is like, seriously funny. LOL!; 10:51 AM

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I'm a mom of three peeps ... Queen Bee, The Door Man, and the Chandelier Monkey, and wife to Ace, the Helpful Hardware Man. I created this space to get away from the people known as my inlaws, and because life with three kids and a hubby is all Unexplored Territory.

The nine-year-old who seems to be growing older every minute, has an opinion and a comment for everything, and has a true servant's heart.

The seven-year-old who loves the organization of things, will someday be someone's therapist because of his kind soul, and will more than likely be living with us until he is 40 years old.

The five-year-old with the 13-year-old attitude, who has a dictator's personality, asks you to watch her all the time and say "hold on" to keep your attention, and will someday come home on the back of some dude's motorcycle with 10 tatts and a body piercing or two.

The man of the house, the fixer of things, the winner of prizes, and the only person in his family to escape the South.