This looks like it’s going to be a victorious tale about man vs. fish. But it’s not…
Mike and I had been attempting to catch fish for the last 6 weeks without success. We were so desperate that when a 6 year old boy told us about salmon roe and powerbait, we ran out to the store the next day and bought some. For those who don’t know, salmon roe is obviously fish eggs that are baited to a hook. Powerbait is glitter covered playdoh in neon colors with a fishy scent. Trout have keen eyesight, and know to avoid a hook if they see one (according to Wikipedia or some other internet source we read from). By molding the powerbait over the hook, the trout swallows the glow-in-the-dark bait whole.
Well, let me tell you…powerbait works. After only a few minutes Mike almost had his first catch ever! He caught a fish, but just as he almost had it reeled in, the line broke. So, technically he hasn’t caught anything. I threw my reel in and fairly quickly caught this fish pictured above. This is where the tragedy comes in…
Once we got the fish out of the water, we weren’t sure what to do. We weren’t going to keep it, it looked too small. Because the fish was flapping around, Mike couldn’t get a grip on it, and now Mike’s hands are flapping around, and were both looking panicked about what to do next. And he says accusingly, “I thought you knew what to do once you catch a fish. You’ve been doing this all your life.” My thought was, “Dad, can you unhook my fish?” I’ve never unhooked a fish in my life, that’s what dads do for their little girls growing up. So, even with with Mike flapping his hands and all jittery, we finally get the fish on the ground, but can’t see the hook. The rainbow trout swallowed the hook so far that it’s in the back of its throat. I can’t seem to get my fingers down by the hook, the fish is now starting to bleed, and so we decide to cut the line, and toss the little guy back in the water. But it floats to the top. OH, NO. It’s dead. And now on this beautiful lake, there is a dead fish floating on the water.
So we decide to try to hide the evidence of our killing. Using the end of our fishing pole, we try to bring it back to shore. But some how the fish gets submerged, and stays underwater. We wait for it to float back up, but it doesn’t. After a while, we resume fishing, but are afraid. We are afraid our dead fish might reappear, and we are afraid we might catch and kill another fish. After 20 minutes the stress becomes too unbearable, and we head back to our camper– we might have had vegetarian curry that night.
