The Fish Whisperer

I've been fishing since I was a relatively little girl. I've never been super-great at it by all means. But I've always loved it. It's something that gets you back to nature and is very rewarding. Even when you get the tiniest nibble and you see your cork bob just once, you get all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that you might just catch something. Even if it's just a wee little perch, it's all worth it just to see what you might have on the line. My parents are lucky enough to have a wonderful neighbor just a quarter mile away from them that just so happens to own a small stocked pond. It's purely catch and release, but I've never really been in it for the meat so that suits me just fine. The rule was generally: You catch it, you skin it. Um, yuck. Call me a pansy, but I just can't bring myself to skin, gut and de-bone a fish. Mostly because they are quite frequently still alive when you do it making such a task disgusting and, quite frankly, a bit disturbing. I'll leave that bit to the pros and continue to buy my fish in the freezer section. Now that I've slightly strayed off my point, I'll get back to it.

Most of my fishing experience has been about average, but after marrying Josh, I've got to spend some time fishing with his brother, Ben. Actually, most of my most memorable fishing times have been with him because he just so happens to be one of those 'pros'. Sadly, we've all moved on from the Land of Many Waters (places to fish) and Ben is actually farther away from fishing areas than even I am. So this summer when my folks introduced me to the cozy little pond down their street, I was pumped to be actually casting my pole once again. You can imagine how excited I was when I actually reeled in one of these...

It was a pretty nice lookin' bass for the size of pond it was and I was beaming. I hadn't caught much more than perch for quite some time. So being the pain in the butt that I am, I had to brag. And who better to brag to than my brother-in-law who is currently fishing-deprived. (How evil, right?) So I promptly emailed him a picture of the bass we were catching to rub it in just a little. (Okay, I'm not as evil as I sound. Really.) I told him that if he ever comes for a visit that we should totally go fishing down at this pond because it's pretty much a guaranteed catch.

Fast-forward a few months. The cozy little pond has been rain deprived and is an even tinier little pond that you can literally throw a stone across if you give it a good heave. And guess who came for Alex's birthday party? Yup. Ben and his three girls. Now, we didn't actually expect to catch a whole lot what with the pond being so itty bitty and having five kids to tend to between us both. But, I brought my camera. You know...just in case. I jokingly mentioned that I had a camera 'just in case' he caught a big one. The sarcasm was thick in my comment of course. We all tossed our poles in and Lauren caught the first fish. A perch. To be expected. What else could be living in this tiny under-oxygenated water? We saw a few frogs and a beaver moseyed by. Then I hear Ben say that he caught something big. I picture the bass that I had caught earlier this year and thought, "Aw man! I can't brag if he catches the same bass as me!" Well, whatever was on his line was definitely no bass. We were fairly worried that he'd hooked the poor beaver that was minding it's own business. Then Ben's pole looked like it was about to snap in half and something broke the surface. My jaw dropped and I couldn't believe what I saw. My bass from summer was now but a mere minnow to the whale that he was pulling into shore. In that pathetic little fishing hole...this is what my brother-in-law catches...

Holy. Freakin'. Cow.

I was stunned and the kids were screaming as he finally scooped the behemoth out of the water and tossed him ashore. Of course, you might remember from my earlier Branson posts that he showed everyone up by catching this during our vacation...From here on out, Ben shall be called the Fish Whisperer. Not only did he catch the fish, but he also helped ease it back into the water with his freaky fish powers so that it wouldn't die from the fifteen minute struggle that it took to catch him. It was absolutely fascinating and the kids had fun. Alex keeps calling it a shark when he sees the pictures of it. That makes me giggle

*sigh* So yet another life lesson learned. Never brag about the minnow when the whale hunter is your brother-in-law.

Here's a video of the last few minutes of the ordeal and some more pics from fishin' with the kiddos. My parents could hear the kids screaming from 1/4 mile away.