The One that Got Away

Late this afternoon, Mike decided to take a break from his chores and do some fishing.  He grabbed his poles and got in his boat.  He caught one little fish fairly quickly and then a second one grabbed his rattletrap just as it hit the water.   Before Mike could start reeling him in, the fish started swimming back towards the boat and then somehow got unhooked and the rattletrap ended up flying back towards Mike and got stuck in his shirt sleeve.  Personally, I think Mike was a little bit distracted as he got ready to throw his hook back into the pond.  He was probably contemplating my reaction if he had returned to the house with that rattletrap stuck in his arm.  Anyway, for whatever reason, he says he just wasn't concentrating when the unexpected happened.

This time Mike threw in his rattletrap and caught a 'whale'.  As he tells me this story now, he thinks it was the biggest fish he had ever caught in the pond.  He is sure of this because he saw it.  He had it swimming by the boat when the fish suddenly changed swimming direction and charged straight under the boat. Mike's pole was bending in a C shape as it was being tugged under the boat also.   Mike stood up and leaned over the edge of the boat pulling in the opposite direction the fish was swimming when he fell.  Fortunately, Mike did not fall in the water as he had his phone and his wallet in his pocket.   But in his attempt to keep from falling in, Mike dropped his fishing pole.  Mike could have grabbed that pole out of the water but he still didn't have his balance and by the time he did, the pole was gone.

Mike said he thought about jumping in after the pole but he was still stunned by what had happened and just wasn't moving quick enough.  Besides he would have had to take the phone and wallet out of his pockets and that would have taken too much time.  So he used his phone to call me and tell me the whole story.  I was properly sympathetic.  It was also at that point that I decided not to pester him about finishing his chores for the day.  With the way his luck was going, I figured anything else he tackled today had disaster written all over it.  Surely tomorrow will be a better day.