A cottage neighbour was on his dock early one morning while Geoff and I were out on the deck spending a few quiet minutes together. One of our dogs decided to wander over to see him, and Geoff followed her to make sure the neighbour was ok with the dog’s visit.
Well, turns out that not only is the neighbour, Brendan, ok with the dogs (and who wouldn’t love our uber-friendly pups) but he is an avid fisher. Geoff told him that he didn’t know much about fishing but that one of our boys was really interested. Brendan kindly suggested that Geoff bring Seth over so that he could give them an intro lesson to fishing! Geoff beetled back to our cottage and woke Seth up (it was only about 6:15am) and the two of them were back on the neighbour’s dock within ten minutes.
Two hours later, Seth came charging back into the cottage so excited that he could simply not contain his broad grin! My smile-challenged middle child was so pumped that he had to put a hand over his mouth for fear of expressing too great a vulnerability. He had caught a fish!! A pickerel, about 10” long. Brendan showed Seth (and Geoff) how to take the hook out of the fish’s mouth and how to guide it back into the water. Seth had learned all kinds of things about fishing and was so happy.
Seth ended up spending seven hours on our deck over the remainder of the day, waiting for the next magical fish to appear on his hook. Hour after hour, taking breaks only for breakfast and lunch, that boy sat at the end of the dock with fishing rod in hand. He caught another fish later that day and, although Geoff took that hook out, by the third fish the following day, Seth had overcome his fear and squeamishness enough to do the job himself…gently and carefully, as he always is with little creatures.
He became so fishing-obsessed in the coming days that his big brother caught the bug as well, and the two of them (and their cousin, when she was with us, and even Lizzie!) have spent hours fishing off of the end of the dock…catching a few more each. Now they also kayak to quiet fishing spots across the bay and spend hours sitting there in the quiet.
Can you even imagine a better way for my boy’s brain to come to rest? I certainly can’t!
I apologize for not having a picture of Seth with his first fish - Geoff took the pictures on his phone and I don’t have them on my system yet. But here’s Matthew with his second fish - a nicely-sized pickerel.
Maybe someday we’ll be eating fish for breakfast!
Shoot…that means I may have to learn how to fillet the things.
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