Now this is a story about fish, . . .errr fishing .
Let's begin with first of what I remember about fishing with my dad. Absolutely nothing. However I remember seeing all kinds of fishing poles in the garage at the Ridgley Drive house, in Campbell, California. So maybe he did once or twice with my brother Drew or Joel?
About the only thing I remember about Fish & Dad is that he Like to Eat them and that was at Fisherman's Wharf, where he often took us to buy some.
Now skipping on to later in life when my brother Joel taught Lou and me to fish. Naw, I'll skip that one. I never really wanted to fish after he mutitlated the fish we caught. Never mind they were too small to eat anyway and being tired from trying to stay awake all night after him telling us there was a Mad Axeman in the woods loose that may come into our tent and hack us up yeah, forget that story on fishing.
Then there came the time to teach Tavis & Lars how to fish. I think brother Lou had this great place out at some lake near where the Old Frontier Village used to be. Anyway I remember that we went to this lake that was stocked Full of fish and we had rods and it was a day to spend bonding and having a good time.
Only thing is that I really remember is that we were trying to teach the boys to put the bait on the hooks and they didn't want to touch the worms! Okay, so now we got them set up and now Lou and I are getting ready to do some serious fishing when I believe Tavis flipped his rod back and the fishing line went back towards my scalp and eyelid and almost hooked me instead!
Yeah, the rest was a blur about if we ever caught fish that day or not?
The next test of fishing was that I brought a fishing pole and every time I went camping at the Yuba River each summer, where beautiful Rainbow Trout could be seen swimming around.
For over 5 years in a row, I fished every time I went. I watched others take out some really big fish,
. . .and me, No, . . .not a thing!
So one year I got fed up and then just threw my rod, tackle box and bait into the river. I watched as all the fish that ignore me start a swarm onto my bait and froth and churned the water like Pirahna fish eating the little orange Salmon eggs I tossed. ( I never fished for a real long time after that! ).
Then there was Loch Lomond and my brother Lou once again got us to go up on opening day at 5am in the morning sitting in the dark, along a dirt road, drinking 7-11 coffee, (This was before StarBuck's) and waiting to be one of the first through the gates and really being about 50 cars back in line. Drinking coffee that early and waiting for something to open, is really like waiting for the bathroom to open and who cares about the fish while all you can do is count the minutes in your head and wonder if your bladder will explode or not.
Yeah, that day was good fishing. It was not really about the fish, but just sitting around talking and heck I was using a Chicken burrito pieces as bait anyway. I don't think fish like that spicy green sauce? Anyway I didn't catch much, but Lou was catching them right and left. Why even when he came right next to me and could see the fish sniffing around my Chicken Burrito bait, they swam over and Jump onto his hook! Yeah, he caught fish. But is was not about the fishing anyway he said. It was the bonding of brothers.
So then my friend Gary went with us fishing and we took Tavis and Lou said lets go back up to Loch Lomond once again. I made SURE that I got real bait this time. (Night crawlers, mealy worms and no burritos).
Okay, so maybe we got our limit this time and granted some fish were really small and we were supposed to throw them back, but Tavis caught them and he was Proud that he got them! (Oh sure, show up the old man and catch a small fish. Heck a small fish that was larger than the one I caught!)
So the story goes, . . . we get home and it is now time to show Tavis how to gut a fish. Kinda like how Joel showed me & Lou many years ago. Since I was never properly taught, I just went with it. Making a big show of cutting off the head and ripping out the guts, what we were left with was not much to eat. Ahhh, but that didn't matter, as I had a plan.
And the plan was that the mess of fish on the kitchen counter needed to be wrapped up and in newspaper and taken out to the garbage. Now as Tavis and Gary went out to the dumpster, I took out the "Mrs. Gorton's" fish filets from freezer and placed in the oven and got some wild rice going.
Why dinner smelled good and even tasted better when Tavis said, "Dad, these sure are good fish I caught!" and Gary even agreed with him, saying I did a great job preparing the breaded fish to taste so good, not even knowing I had made the switch on him either!
And so it went unsaid for many years and then one day I told Tavis the Truth when he was older. Remember that time? . . .Oh and one last thing to add about my last story on FISHING: About 10 years ago I took a friend up to the Yuba River to camp and the next morning as I was going out for an early swim while waiting for the coffee to perk, I see my friend had brought a fishing rod and was sitting next to the fire.
I told him my story like I told all of you and then ended saying I never caught a thing in this river, then I got up and walked towards the river's edge. He did'nt even have any bait on him and said he brought the pole on a whim and then stuck a piece of bread on the hook and tossed the line out into the water in front of me.
Well even before my foot touched the water and the line was still in the air about to drop into the river, a big 16 inch Rainbow Trout jumps out of the water and grabs the bread and is hooked before landing back into the water again!
I just turned around and said "I'll be damn" and walked back up to the campfire to get out a frying pan, because we were having FISH for breakfast!
And that's the best memory of me fishing! The End!
About the only thing I remember about Fish & Dad is that he Like to Eat them and that was at Fisherman's Wharf, where he often took us to buy some.
Now skipping on to later in life when my brother Joel taught Lou and me to fish. Naw, I'll skip that one. I never really wanted to fish after he mutitlated the fish we caught. Never mind they were too small to eat anyway and being tired from trying to stay awake all night after him telling us there was a Mad Axeman in the woods loose that may come into our tent and hack us up yeah, forget that story on fishing.
Then there came the time to teach Tavis & Lars how to fish. I think brother Lou had this great place out at some lake near where the Old Frontier Village used to be. Anyway I remember that we went to this lake that was stocked Full of fish and we had rods and it was a day to spend bonding and having a good time.
Only thing is that I really remember is that we were trying to teach the boys to put the bait on the hooks and they didn't want to touch the worms! Okay, so now we got them set up and now Lou and I are getting ready to do some serious fishing when I believe Tavis flipped his rod back and the fishing line went back towards my scalp and eyelid and almost hooked me instead!
Yeah, the rest was a blur about if we ever caught fish that day or not?
The next test of fishing was that I brought a fishing pole and every time I went camping at the Yuba River each summer, where beautiful Rainbow Trout could be seen swimming around.
For over 5 years in a row, I fished every time I went. I watched others take out some really big fish,
. . .and me, No, . . .not a thing!
So one year I got fed up and then just threw my rod, tackle box and bait into the river. I watched as all the fish that ignore me start a swarm onto my bait and froth and churned the water like Pirahna fish eating the little orange Salmon eggs I tossed. ( I never fished for a real long time after that! ).
Then there was Loch Lomond and my brother Lou once again got us to go up on opening day at 5am in the morning sitting in the dark, along a dirt road, drinking 7-11 coffee, (This was before StarBuck's) and waiting to be one of the first through the gates and really being about 50 cars back in line. Drinking coffee that early and waiting for something to open, is really like waiting for the bathroom to open and who cares about the fish while all you can do is count the minutes in your head and wonder if your bladder will explode or not.
Yeah, that day was good fishing. It was not really about the fish, but just sitting around talking and heck I was using a Chicken burrito pieces as bait anyway. I don't think fish like that spicy green sauce? Anyway I didn't catch much, but Lou was catching them right and left. Why even when he came right next to me and could see the fish sniffing around my Chicken Burrito bait, they swam over and Jump onto his hook! Yeah, he caught fish. But is was not about the fishing anyway he said. It was the bonding of brothers.
So then my friend Gary went with us fishing and we took Tavis and Lou said lets go back up to Loch Lomond once again. I made SURE that I got real bait this time. (Night crawlers, mealy worms and no burritos).
Okay, so maybe we got our limit this time and granted some fish were really small and we were supposed to throw them back, but Tavis caught them and he was Proud that he got them! (Oh sure, show up the old man and catch a small fish. Heck a small fish that was larger than the one I caught!)
So the story goes, . . . we get home and it is now time to show Tavis how to gut a fish. Kinda like how Joel showed me & Lou many years ago. Since I was never properly taught, I just went with it. Making a big show of cutting off the head and ripping out the guts, what we were left with was not much to eat. Ahhh, but that didn't matter, as I had a plan.
And the plan was that the mess of fish on the kitchen counter needed to be wrapped up and in newspaper and taken out to the garbage. Now as Tavis and Gary went out to the dumpster, I took out the "Mrs. Gorton's" fish filets from freezer and placed in the oven and got some wild rice going.
Why dinner smelled good and even tasted better when Tavis said, "Dad, these sure are good fish I caught!" and Gary even agreed with him, saying I did a great job preparing the breaded fish to taste so good, not even knowing I had made the switch on him either!
And so it went unsaid for many years and then one day I told Tavis the Truth when he was older. Remember that time? . . .Oh and one last thing to add about my last story on FISHING: About 10 years ago I took a friend up to the Yuba River to camp and the next morning as I was going out for an early swim while waiting for the coffee to perk, I see my friend had brought a fishing rod and was sitting next to the fire.
I told him my story like I told all of you and then ended saying I never caught a thing in this river, then I got up and walked towards the river's edge. He did'nt even have any bait on him and said he brought the pole on a whim and then stuck a piece of bread on the hook and tossed the line out into the water in front of me.
Well even before my foot touched the water and the line was still in the air about to drop into the river, a big 16 inch Rainbow Trout jumps out of the water and grabs the bread and is hooked before landing back into the water again!
I just turned around and said "I'll be damn" and walked back up to the campfire to get out a frying pan, because we were having FISH for breakfast!
And that's the best memory of me fishing! The End!
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