The Expert Fisher "Mom"
I was a den mother for Boy Scout Troop #75. I always tried to show the seven-year-old boys as much fun as possible, including my own son and four-year-old daughter, who always had to tag along on our field trips. She was a good scout! On a lovely spring day I decided to take the boys fishing at a stocked lake. I called all the boys and had them meet at a central location with their fishing equipment. Somehow I wound up with a few strange faces, but that was okay. I put the top down on the convertible and we looked like a rolling pin cushion with nine fishing poles sticking up! The car was alive with wiggling, noisy boys and a little girl!
On the road.
As soon as we arrived, we bought some stinky, mushy bait from the entrance shack and found a nice secluded spot to put our lines in. I started baiting hooks. With each hook I baited I recited a mantra, "Hocus Pocus, sixth & locust, Gina Lollobrigida." Not being a fishermom, I really didn't know much, but acted very savvy when I showed them how to cast and reel in. My son had our only rod and reel, so Cathy and I used a bamboo pole rigged with old 30-pound test line and a bobber.
The boys started catching more fish than I care to remember, and none knew how to unhook and string them. We had bluegill, catfish, carp and some unidentifiable squirmy things. I had put a concrete block on my pole since I was too busy to sit down. The day passed rapidly, but the boys didn't want to go home. I relented and we stayed until we were thoroughly sunburned and mosquito bitten. I had forgotten my own pole in the excitement.
I challenge anyone to take seven seven-year-olds and a little girl fishing and do any fishing themselves.
Suddenly one of the boys shouted, "Look at your bobber!" It was going crazy out in the water. I casually started pulling on the line but couldn't pull in whatever had it. The boys helped and finally there was the biggest fish I had ever seen. We got it up to the one-foot bank but couldn't get it over the embankment.
Little Robbie Ganniger jumped into the lake and straddled the fish. He exclaimed, "I won't let him get away Mrs. Knoebel!" I yelled, "Ride 'em Fish Boy!" With the help of a nearby fisherman we finally hauled in the big carp. It weighed an amazing 13½ pounds! Altogether we caught nearly 70 pounds of fish that day.
Later I took some very happy boys home to their very worried parents. We had planned a much shorter fishing excursion!
