86 days, Mr Bass, and The Fisher Monkey Princess

I have been lucky all along to have nice gear for any of the sporting sorts of things I wanted to do. Shooting, hunting, hiking, photography, etc. ... I have some pretty decent stuff for these things. Among these also, though I seldom ever do it anymore, is fishing. I have a one piece Ugly Stick with a Mitchell 310 mounted on it that has handled every bit of fishing I have done for 5 or so years. After my girl came along, fishing just stopped be a priority... until last year. She announced that she wanted to go fishing. "Well now", I thought,"I think we can do that." Today was a good day too.



Take a good look at Mr Bass here. Nothing really special as bass go. 3 to 4 pounds of pure fighter until you get him to shore and have a look. So it turns out that the Monkey, the Princess, the fishing apple of my eye is actually afraid of fish. This seems puzzling to me as it was her idea to go. She even made me, last year anyway, buy her a Cinderella fishing pole. Check her out with it....



Now, you can only imagine my joy at having the first strike on the first cast come back with a pull on the drag and a fish on the shore, turning to horror as my girl grabs one of my hands while I am trying to free Mr Bass and begins screaming, "Put it back in the water Daddy. He's mad and he scares me. Put it baaaaack!" Somewhere in there I perform minor-league aerobatics and keep her and I from being hooked on the same line as the bass while it flails and she wails and pulls and jumps.... and finally just have to think that Mr Bass just has to tough it out for a moment. I have to get the girl squared up. It's some comfort to be reassured that it was wise not to equip her with hook-bearing bait and use only soft, hookless things for her to toss around. Imagine the above scene with a second loose hook, not in my control. Ugh...

As I lower him back to the water and he starts to submerge, he flips and twists and he is gone. Back to the green bottom where he came from and I am left fishing with the princess who won't go near the water for fear of angry fish."Next time Daddy, you can only catch small fish and only if they want to be caught." Say what? Now I have to pick the fish I am catching. This super-dad thing has got to stop...

I think I am probably back to no-hook, casting-only fishing with my girl again. Too bad to. That strike and short run were just the sort of fun I needed to break up the days (86 I see by my counter) until the preseason is over and the good stuff starts. It's worth it though. Who among us all has a better fishing buddy than the one who will let us buy her a happy meal after a hard day of fishing and then, let us dress-up the Barbies with her?


Let me tell ya, I do not. This is it. It would just be nice to be allowed to catch the fish instead of just watching the wind on the water. I guess the smiles and the giggles when she cast the worm down the back of my shorts will have to do...