Gone Fishing - A Love Note about Summer

The Summer "Bucket" List as written by our children includes a "Fishing Charter". This was our mission to fulfill this summer. Just a pole, some bait, a boat, boat captain, a Dad, and Lake Erie...and a whole bunch of walleye. Gone fishing, check. Walleye, check.

There's a beautiful vacation spot called Marblehead right on the shores of Lake Erie. Two little boys were bored, tired of their devices and tired of hitting each other just for a moment. A pole and some bait so simple, just wait, and wait. It was what they wished for; their dream to fish and fish sometimes at the side of a stream. This is the poetry of summer. This is childhood.

It might be the best lesson of summer. How to catch? What lure to use? How to cast and add some drag? How much does it weigh and how long is it?  A strategy lesson with math to boot. These are the life lessons that are the most fun to watch. Catch and cook. What does it taste like? Catch and release. Why do fish swallow hooks? Gaining independence, doing everything yourself. Ah, childhood.

Carpe Diem

Patience.  Learning to wait, recheck your bait, think of your strategy or whether you abate. Anywhere there's water, you're happy to wait and wait. But the charter, nobody could have worked harder. Hooking 10 then 20 then 30 then 40. Stoking the love, and the fire within, fishing and fishing with a grin.

Friendships made at the end of that pole both with the young and the "old". Trading secrets of spots, and the lure that works. A bond that will last forever.

Gone fishing. In the lake, no worries about a boat or the wake. Just boys with a pole, and some bait.

Bass