TO FISH OR NOT TO FISH

It’s time to hit the water again and not necessarily at the wheel of a twenty foot boat loaded with every imaginable electronic device that can be installed. No, this is the time when we take to the water in waders or high boots, maybe sneakers or sandals if brave enough or even dipping a toe into a lake or stream from the very edge of the shoreline. It is fishing season so let the fun begin.
For those who willingly brave the snow and cold to fish through the ice all winter I suppose the season never really ended. For guys like me, though, who don’t much like snow and cold or the sound of ice cracking on a winter morning (experts tell me that’s a good thing but I have my doubts) the season ended last autumn as the last of the leaves fell and a chill wind rippled the water. Well, it’s back.
We can take to the water again to the extent we’re able and put out our lines baited with cheese, worms, marshmallows, corn or whatever we can scrounge up and settle back to wait for the first sign that there is indeed life beneath the waves. The bobber moves slowly away from shore, like those big barrels the Great White took in Jaws, and like every good angler we tug at the line, not too hard nor too easily, just so. Generally, we pull out only a hook with none of our bait still on it. Score one for the fish, tricky little devils that they are. But then that’s why they call it fishing, not catching.
The good part is that we are out there, enjoying the company of our families and friends or just by ourselves enjoying the outdoors. Either way fishing season is here and it’s about time.