Saturday Stories. #26

Hi everyone! It is a beautiful, sunny, spring day here. This is the kind of day that says spring must be here to stay now. There are no clouds visible from where I sit looking out my living room window. It is a pleasant 63F (17C) at the moment, with the temperature yet to rise to 70F (21C).

Tomorrow and Monday will be slightly warmer, then it will drop back to a more normal early May temperature. However, this is a great way to start the month of May. It was a nice day like this, though later in May, that my Dad, brother and I decided to head out for some early morning fishing. There was a small lake that we had not tried yet and so this was a good opportunity to do so.

It should be noted that this was quite a few years ago when I was in my late teens. My brother was in his mid twenties at the time. Anyway, we were up early and on the lake about 5:30am. The lake was nice and calm and everything was quiet, even though the lake was right beside the highway. However, there isn’t much traffic that time of day.

As mentioned, the lake was small and we had never seen anyone fishing on that lake before. And we did drive past that lake a lot. So, we were all quite excited about the possibilities of getting some fish. After an hour without even a nibble, our excitement was disappearing. Sigh. “Maybe we should rock the boat and see if that scares up some action,” said my brother.

I was in the front of the boat at the time, Dad was at the back. Dad then mentioned that if we rocked the boat, he would throw us both into the lake. Then he did some kind of weird cackling laugh. That got my brother and I laughing. Loud and long. Just then Dad caught a fish, while he was standing at the back of the boat. My brother got the net ready to grab that fish.

It was off the rock that all our fun happened.

Now, what followed was quite interesting. I thought it was, at least. Since my Dad was standing, my brother had put his tackle box on the seat, which Dad also used. Anyway, he was ready to get that fish and Dad was bringing the fish around to that side of the boat. However, my brother was a bit eager to get the fish, so he leaned over the edge of the boat.

He was just barely holding the end of the handle of that net. Leaning over the edge of the boat made the boat tip in that direction. Dad screamed and sat down quickly! Actually, I think he fell down quickly, landing on top of the open tackle box. That sudden fall caused the boat to rock the opposite way! Dad screamed again as he sat on the open tackle box.

My brother screamed because the boat suddenly went the opposite direction. That made him let go of the net and it sunk to the bottom of the lake, never to be seen again. Dad lost his fish as well. Plus he nearly dropped his rod and reel overboard. And he got two fishhooks stuck to the bottom of his, well, bottom! Fortunately they were not in deep so my brother was able to pull them out easily.

“You two made so much noise, it probably scared every fish in the lake,” I said. Dad was now ready to start fishing again and made a nice cast close to some trees that had fallen into the lake. That’s when my brother answered me. “Take’s more noise than that,” he said, “something like this.” He then dropped his tackle box on the bottom of the boat, which was aluminum.

That was actually quite loud. When Dad had made that nice cast, he caught a fish immediately. But that noise must have scared the fish and it wrapped the line around those trees. Then it got away. Leaving Dad’s lure behind. We could see it, but it was too deep to reach it. Dad did finally get it though, while Doug and I were catching fish. I caught 3 and Doug caught two.

This whole area burned in a large forest fire 45 years ago.

Poor Dad didn’t catch any, well, none he was able to keep. Then suddenly the fish stopped biting. Dad sighed and we went out for breakfast at our favorite restaurant. I was 18 at the time, Krissy was 8. Who would have thought that 9 years later, Krissy and I would be going out hiking together.

When we got home, Mom asked Dad why he didn’t catch any fish. He just said, “Because I had 2 sons with me.” Very strange answer. I hope you all have a great weekend and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2025 Steve McLeod.