"NIGHTmare Fishing"

This past Tuesday I cut out of the office early, and hung out with Price at his new house in Williamstown which is located right on a beautiful private lake. It was the first time that I can recall that I had a chance to go fresh water fishing (now that I think of it I likely had to of at a really young age) Price and spend a good part of the afternoon on a canoe relaxing and fishing. It was an awesome day weather wise and it gave us a chance to really catch up on each others lives for the most part. I hoisted up what we figure was a Sunfish and Price got about 3 fish of his own.

Later, that day Price’s wife cooked us an awesome meal after Liza, and Price’s sister-in-law and boyfriend joined us. She really out did herself and after finishing the meal we decided to take the canoes out on the water and tour the lake and do some night fishing. I was excited at the prospect of Liza being on a boat for the first time. However, she was uneasy when she realized I would be navigating the boat and told me she would leave me if I sent her into the bottom of the lake. I did not send my loving Liza to her watery grave, but had some navigated related difficulty compared to the more seasoned canoe people on the lake that night The other boat had Price his wife and a random girl, the 3rd boat had Price’s sister in law and boyfriend.

So, after all this bragging about boating a flounder the heat was on in front of my girlfriend. Well, let me tell you it was quite dark out there and I am surprised I got the worm on the hook with out shoving a hook through my finger. Now there are some slight differences in fresh and salt water fishing mostly in how you hold the rod, and to some extent how you react when you feel a bite. Anyway my first cast was fairly uneventful and overshadowed by the fact that someone (it was dark I don’t recall who) pulled up catfish literally seconds after casting.

So, my 2nd cast was uneventful, but since it was so darn dark I cranked the line all the way to the top of the rod. It being so dark and a lighter rod I didn’t notice. This is usually and easy fix and I did it once successfully, then I followed it up by another cast the resulted in cranking it up to high. So, here I am the only one in the boat with a rod (Liza was just chilling) trying like a madman to fix it again in the pitch black. The other boats were just mere shadowing images floating on the water. Although, the one dude had a flashlight on him I was still fumbling with the rod in the dark. I knew it would be a matter of time till someone asked how were doing. Much to my horror they did before I could get the rod fixed. At some point, the problem went from an over cranked line to that fact that the act reel was falling off the rod. Having no clue what happened any very little vision I tried desperately to fix the situation.

For all I know at this point that an important part to the reel feel quietly an unnoticed to the floor of the boat. The reel just kept whoobling off. I tried both ways, but it just refused to screw back in. Eventually, I realized that I couldn’t solve the problem. So, Liza and rowed over to Price’s boat who had his wife and some random girl I met only a few times on board. It turns out that it was not only the random girls’ rod, but I ended up having two girls strip my of my manhood as they tried to perform surgery on the stubborn rod. The two of them failed as I did and at this point I didn’t know what to root for either A. I will be shown fools since it was an obvious easy fix, or B I had broken the fishing pole of the random girl who was getting increasingly upset. Well lets just say I offered to buy a new reel about 4 times in the minutes that followed.

A few minutes later Price got snagged on a lily pad. Liza and I were sent to find the line and yank it out of the lily pad. I really tried to fine the damn thing on the moonless starless nigh. It was so dark that I could barely tell if Liza had fallen over board or not let alone find something that was virtually invisible. I guess Price should have pulled up the anchor and paddled to it the lily pad in or order to release stress on the line, and perhaps had I suggested that in time I could have redeemed myself to a certain extent. However, when the thought surfaced in my brain it was too late and the line snapped. Then the third boat yelled that they were already out of worms. Needless to say it was a short fishing trip.


So, there I was after my flounder I caught earlier this summer that somehow seems more like 6 inches then 22 inches looking making me more like Clark Griswold than a bass master in front of my girlfriend who never saw me fish. Now I feel as though that I the random girl will wish to see our next trip on the lake to end with me at the bottom. For all I know it was fixed later that night, but I still think I have to boat the lake monster that Price claims is lurking in the waters in order to regain my manhood.