fish mail

this is easily one of the best pieces of mail I've received in a long time. pictures of the adventure here.

a little while ago Zachary and his mom were on a walk though the neighborhood, and they decided to stop by. while Michelle and Heather chatted about gardens and babies and whatnot, Z and I played on our various musical instruments. he doesnt remember, but he played on one of those drum things when he was probably 6 months old. and he was responsible for us wanting to have kids early on. then he started teething, and we lived just up the stairs. it didn't take long for us to find our own little house.

anyway, we ended up playing a little game involving magnetic fishing pole things and little metal-stomached fish with opening and closing mouths. he loved it.

so that got us on the subject of fishing, where he mentioned he'd never been fishing before. so I promised him that I'd take him sometime soon. I brought out my flyfishing gear as he looked and learned in awe. and every time I saw him thereafter, he'd ask when we're going. I told him there was a perfect place to go: a little pond in the backyard of a friend at church. in a short while we were off, just me and my favorite 5-year-old.

he's a pretty quiet kid, which is probably why I like him so much, as I'm that way myself. but on the way to the pond, he was positively hyper. talking non-stop about stuff only preschoolers can think of. I was cracking up most of the way there.

we arrived and I set up the gear on the little 8 foot dock. all I have is flyfishing gear anymore, so I just brought one rod to share. I tied up the fly, flipped it out on the water and twitched it a little, hoping for some willing sunfish. it didnt take long when we had a little guy on, and I gave Z the honor of hauling him in. pictures taken, scales touched (only a little), we released him back into the wild.

during an hour or so we hauled in a grand total of 5 little sunfish, and he was very satisfied. being a 5-year-old, he also played our little fish game too, while I tried to coax a big one in. all I ended up achieving was feeding some flies to the trees.

much to my delight, the evening passed without incident, although we had a very close call. as he looked in the box for a new fly to try, he ended up dumping the whole thing in the pond. my dad tied most of them, and there's about 30 in that box, and I figured they were all gone. but the box landed UP! and it floated! he never knew what might have been.

maybe next time we'll work on the basics of casting or something. or we'll just haul a few more little fish in to admire and set free.