You never know the lessons of the day and how they will come about.
About three weeks ago I bought Erin and Eoin fishing rods.
They came with a practice weight so they could practice casting in the back yard without hooking a Bridgie.
They had a lot of fun learning how to cast and Mr. Joe, our version of Mr. Wilson, popped his head over the fence and asked where I planned to take them Fishing.
Mr. Joe is the resident expert fisherman of Harwell Avenue. When I said we would try back lake, uh I mean Swann Park, he shared that corn would be our best bet as bait.
About three days later, Mr. Joe presented Eoin with two small hooks and a neon bobber for his rod.
This re-lit the fire under my heels to take them out.
Yesterday was our first adventure. Daddy relocated his old tackle box under 32 screwdrivers, 56 packets of old screws from random projects, 106 old direction sheets, and 300 old t-shirts he's going to use for rags. Kindly, he weighted and hooked the rods, I packed our bag with towels, water, a bucket, sunscreen, scissors, corn and band aids of course.
'twas a lovely afternoon, warm, sunny, and breezy. We found our spot over by some fallen logs with resting turtles on them. One large turtle basked by himself while a family of smaller turtles, about a dozen, on a smaller log.
We cast the pink rod first. Erin held steady while we cast Eoins rod. Instantaneously Eoin had reeled in some 'seaweed'. Very exciting indeed. Erin slowly reeled in her rod and we recast. I turned to recast Eoin and Erin starts squealing and screaming....'My bobber's gone, my bobber's gone' ready to drop the rod. She tries to hand me the rod and I tell her to reel in slowly...'I can't I can't its stuck'. So I take the rod and realize we indeed have a fish.
A decent size first catch.
'Eeewww I don't have to touch it do I?'
We think it to be some type of blue gill or perhaps a sunfish. Sunfish are not listed on Maryland's DNR site as native to freshwater so we are not sure.
Erin reluctantly held the rod so I could free the fish, Eoin touched it with his pointer finger and we threw him back.
About 10 minutes later Eoin got a bite. A BIG bite. A bite that had him pushing towards the water and a bobber that truly had disappeared. I figured we had a log or something so I grabbed the rod and began to reel in the resisting species. As it came into shallow water my heart sank....a turtle. A big dinner plate size turtle. And the kids sensed it too. I brought the turtle out of the water and tried to grab him. Erin and Eoin would not get near the rod, so they were no help. I put the rod down and stepped on it while trying to grab the turtle. He was no help either. Squirming and desperate to get back into the water. I tried a third time to put one hand on the turtles back, my foot on the rod and my other hand trying to free the hook. The kids were getting scared at this point and I figured it better for me to cut him free than risk getting bit with the kids starting to freak. So, after 2 minutes of Erin trying to find the scissors we cut 'Her' free. We watched as she swam away with Mr. Joe's neon bobber floating on the surface. Soon it disappeared.
We just stood watching. It is then that I looked over at Eoin and saw the worst look of grief I have ever seen on his little face. I swooped him up into a hug and said what's the matter Eoin?
'Her still have hook' and he cried.
(It's interesting that he said her, as everyone and thing is him up until this point)
Erin: 'It's okay Eoin her friends will help her get free'
Me: 'Yes, Erin's right all her turtle friends will help get her free and be safe" She's going to be just fine.
Erin: 'Maybe we should pray'
Me: 'yes we should, let's hold hands'
Erin: 'No, like this.' Hands folded in prayer in front of her.
Me:'Dear God please take care of our turtle friend, we are very sorry for hooking her. Please keep her safe. Amen'
Eoin: 'AMEN!' 'Mommy, what's Amen?'
Me: 'Amen is thank you God'
Eoin: 'Yes, Amen, thank you God'
It is here we began to see the neon bobber floating towards us. I am pretty sure the bobber was alone.
After a few more casts with the Barbie rod, we fed the fish with the rest of our corn and packed up.
We stopped to do what we do best on the way out......
Play.
Can't wait to tell Mr. Wilson, I mean Mr. Joe about our adventure. He'll surely know what kind of fish it was.
I'm linking up with Family Time Tuesday with this post.
