January 18th, 2017

So what do you say  today we talk about fishing? Which is weird of me, because I don't fish.   But you see it, or evidence of it, everywhere here.  Every time we go down to the jetty, there are people fishing; the pier? fishing a bridge? fishing; riverside? fishing; lake? fishing and don't get me started on the fishing boats.

I have nothing against fishing or fisherpeople, I just do not see the allure. First of all, other than the odd tuna sandwich - and I do mean odd. I will only eat it if I am the one who made it - I don't eat fish. Just don't care for it.   But it's also so incredibly boring.  They sit or stand for hours on end with a pole, the end of which dangles in the water. Oooooo exciting (not).   I'm too itchy of a person to be that still that long. I need to be moving.

And then there is the ick factor.  The hooking and unhooking and handling and scaling and gutting and...no thank you very much please. I hate to admit that I am that much of a girly girl but sometimes, this time, I am.  Which is strange. I lived on a farm. Not a place for the faint of heart.  I had three boys. It's hard to be too dainty when you heart and life are filled to overflowing with those three wonderful, rough and tumble, ick loving boys!  But there is something different about a fish.

They always seem a little alien, a little prehistoric to me. Not sure why.  Which would make me, what?  Ornithoscelidaphobic? or maybe  Ichthyophobic?  I don't hate them. I'm not afraid of them, I'd just prefer not to hunt, catch or handle them. We all have our likes and dislikes, for whatever the reason. This is one of mine in the dislike column. I think that's fair.

But some people do love it.   They stand all day getting sunburned on the land or they go out in boats, bob around getting sunburned out on the water,  seeking their briney prey.  Then finally it happens, that little tug on the line.  They perk up!  Yes!  There it is!  Carefully carefully they turn the reel.   The fish, realizing it's caught, fights. It fights for all it's worth. The fisherperson is jazzed now. It's a battle.  They play the fish give it a little room and then pull in, over and over.  It's never certain who is going to win right up until with a final pull and lift the fish is out of the water and in the person's hands.  They unhook the fish, admire their catch and then (and this is the biggest mystery) at least half the time if not more, they throw it back.  What?  After all that you aren't even going to take it back home to eat it? Well, I suppose that's better than catching it and then just abandoning it which I know some hunters do.  But we won't go there.

I think I understand part of it.  A lot of people love to eat it. It's healthy, I'm told, and it's on almost every menu  in some form in this state.  Ok.  Being outside in nature, I totally get that.  The peace and quiet, nobody bothering you, check. Or the comaraderie of hanging with your friends just enjoying the day together, ok. But involving the fish? Oh well, to each his or her own. I don't have to understand something to accept it as true.  And a great number of people love fishing.  I accept this as true.

Then of course, there is the original fishermen.  Prime example in the slideshow below.  Him, I get.