Part of my new life at Casablanca with my husband Kevin, is fishing. I have fished previously, but never as a regular activity. The first time I saw the boat in Kevin’s garage I thought of the old saying “a boat is a hole in the water where you throw money”. And it is true, there is expense involved. But this boat gets used more than a lot of expensive equipment I can name (my electric bike). 

Here are some of the things I am learning:

– Do we catch fish? Yes, almost all the time. 

– Do we keep and eat them? No, we throw them back and they live on.

– We pay money for worms instead of digging them ourselves.

– We pay money for minnows.

– A lot of the fish we catch are only slightly bigger than the minnows we buy.

– The wind direction determines which lake we fish and which spots are best. 

– The water temperature determines what the fish want to eat. 

– The time of day determines when the fish are hungry. 

– Sometimes none of the above matters. Just go fishing. 

I am not allowed to bait my own hook or take a fish off my line. The reason behind this is that Kevin likes to multitask (while watching his own two poles) and also I might get my hands dirty. I have to be ready to be photographed sitting in my spot on the bow. All this is better if I look good. 

I am learning that to look good while fishing I must fasten my hair down in some way. Hats, hoods, scarves are all necessary in order to withstand the fierce wind created when speeding between fishing spots. 

My other job when fishing is driving the trailer from the water after the boat is launched and parking truck and trailer in the lot. I also pull the loaded trailer  a short distance out of the water after we are done fishing. No backing is required in any of this so I have not learned that (yet).

Contrary to my childhood experiences of fishing, we don’t stay patiently at our fishing hole until it’s time to quit. We are equal opportunity fisher people and give ten or fifteen minutes to the fish in each spot before moving to the next. We are doing our part to feed them all. 

Most of the time I can identify a sunfish,  a perch, or a bluegill. These are all smaller fish which are affectionately called piranha. I have a harder time with bass which are named according to the size of their mouths. The fish we are really after are walleyes. They do have big eyes, but I don’t know where the wall fits in. 

We fish often enough that we refer to Tuesdays as “fishing day”. But this last week we went fishing on a Monday because of a southwest wind (go figure). To my surprise, we did not take the boat. Also to my surprise we did not fish from anyone’s pier or dock. We fished from the beach, sitting in our folding chairs while watching the sunset, listening to the small waves and the loons. That is really good fishing.