OF ALL THE THINGS I enjoy doing, fishing isn’t one of them. I’m just not patient enough. I don’t own a rod. I hate the smell of bait. I’d rather eat a sausage than a snapper. And I get seasick …
Oh, believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve gotten up early and ventured out on the water with my fishermen-friends. But, before you know it, I’m losing my breakfast over the side of their small rocking boat.
And all I wanna do is DIE!
Fishing off the beach is less sick-making. And I’ll never forget doing just that with a five-year-old grandson. He’d been begging me all day. So we hit the beach as the sun was going down, and carried our gear to a spot near the rocks. I baited-up, waded into the waves, and cast out.
Then we sat down together in the warm soft sand to wait – just him and me.
He held the rod, and prayed for a bite, and we talked. He reeled it in from time to time, and I cast it out again, and we sat down and waited and talked some more.
We talked about the sea, and sharks and whales and dolphins. We talked about the whopper we were gonna catch. And, as it got darker and a little lonelier and spookier on that long empty beach, we snuggled up a bit closer, and talked about stars and God and stuff like that.
We were in no hurry.
There was nothing urgent to rush back to.
Now was all that really mattered …
We didn’t catch a whopper that night, by the way. We didn’t catch a thing – unless you count one baby-sprat that impaled itself on our hook.
But no-one was bothered. Not him, not me. ‘Cause when there’s just you and your five-year-old grandson … it’s the fishing that counts, not the fish!
JOHN – GRAPEVINE’S FOUNDER & ‘BIG CHEESE’ – AGREES WITH COMEDIAN DAVE BARRY: “FISHING IS BORING, UNLESS YOU CATCH AN ACTUAL FISH, AND THEN IT’S DISGUSTING.”
