Fishing

The weather here was chilly and wet all week, so I didn't fish until Thursday afternoon. The fish were biting, actually I think I was just feeding them a lot of nightcrawlers! I only caught one small rainbow trout, one small perch, and eight blue gills. All fish were catch and release, so none came home with me. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was in the upper 70's, there was a lot of sunshine and a light wind. Not too many people were fishing, a change from the middle of April when trout season opened. Anglers were almost shoulder-to-shoulder at Northmoreland Park for a couple of weeks.

Fishing is such a peaceful, calming activity. I think I was influenced by my paternal grandfather, a positive male role model in my life, who loved to fish. I vividly recall sitting in a motor boat with him when he took me out on Lake Ontario fishing with him one summer day when I was ten years old. We were staying at my uncle's hunting and fishing camp on Big Island. I know my grandfather was trolling, and trying to catch a big pike or a muskie. He didn't while I was with him, though. That was the same week a big kid who was visiting someone else on the island tried to drown me. Another vivid memory which kept me from becoming a good swimmer all my life. I recall my mother having me look in a mirror to see how blue I was. Scary!

On the positive side of that experience is the knowledge that drowning is a rather peaceful form of dying, once you are past the struggling. I remember just sitting down on the bottom of the lake and gazing at the algae growing from the lake floor as it swayed gracefully with the water movement. What happens, I believe, is that euphoria overcomes you and you no longer fight to get out of the water.