My First Fishing Trip

Introduction

I thought I would spend a few minutes here and show some encouragement relative to my 19 year old daughter's (Jennifer Bain's) potential budding talents as a creative writer...--dgb, Oct. 11th, 2008.

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My First Fishing Trip


“Hurry! We are leaving without you.”, my brother yelled up the stairs. I was always late. I ran down the stairs with a huge grin on my face and my luggage in my hands, I was all packed and ready to go. Our family lived in a large town house in the city. It was almost supper and everyone would be rushing home. We were on the road, a vacation, a road trip, we were headed to Nova Scotia.

“Wake up, we are here.” My mom shouted from the front seat, then continued to shake me and my brother awake, we had fallen asleep in the back seat on what seem to be the longest drive of our life. It took 18 hours to drive from Ontario to Nova Scotia. I got out of the car and glanced around, there was no doubt we were in the country now. The crisp fresh salt air rushed into my lungs once filled with city pollutants. There were fall colored trees, bushes and blueberry fields as far as the eye could see.

My brother Mike was turning 20 in a couple weeks on October 15, a computer geek, around 5 feet 8 inches with dark short hair. Mike hated the thought of coming to Nova Scotia, he hated the country. My brother was born and raised in the city and loved the rush of life and technology in the city. I am only a year younger than him, and we look a lot alike, only I wear glasses and have longer hair. I loved the idea -- walks on the edge of the Ocean, through the walking trails and beautiful parks full of outdoor scenery.

“Mike, walk with me to the store for a treat.” I tried to convince him to keep me company. It didn’t work. He was always on the phone or computer with his girlfriend back in Newmarket. He really hadn’t gone anywhere since we had gotten to Nova Scotia. I was walking around downtown, the buildings looked so small and old, there where no busy traffic lights or speeding cars.

“Hey! Are you from around here?” A voice came from behind me. It was one of the local boys. He was very scruffy looking, wearing old torn, stained clothes, and big rubber boots. He had a charming look to him at the same time, blond hair that stuck out the sides of his ball cap and bright blue eyes. He stuck out his hand and asked if he was welcome to show me around.

The boy's name was Nick. He took me for a walk. He was on his way to go fishing when he saw me walking aimlessly downtown. Nick wanted to show me how to fish, I had never gone fishing before, and I had never even seen a live fish out of a lake. The only fish I had seen were the ones at the pet store, swimming around with such confusion of direction.

Nick and I had reached our destination, a small lake. I watched him put a worm on the end of the hook and cast the line out far into the water. “Wait for it ….Wait for it,” he said with anticipation in his voice. Right then like a force from a hungry bear, his line was being pulled into the water.

What a battle!, what a struggle for survival the fish ut up! What would it be?, he wondered. A trout, a bass, a perch? He pulled out a fish that had to have been at least 5 lbs. I was very eager to see what it was. I looked in close, and he told me it was a bass.

I was very excited to see the fish flopping around on the ground, although at the same time, I felt a rush of sympathy. The fish had been tragically taken from his home, family and I stood there, with a long face.

I asked if I could release him back into the water. Nick couldn’t see why not. I grabbed the fish, but no sooner had I done this, than I droped it right back on the ground and start clutching my hand in agony. It had spikes! Nick let the fish back into the water as I nursed my hand back into working order.

It was my turn to take the fishing rod in my hand.

Like a bullet penetrating the water, I cast the line about 3 feet in front of me. Needless to say I was not skilled at casting a fishing rod yet. Nick cast the line about 18 feet out into the water, a tad bit better than my sorry cast.

I stood there nerves on edge, waiting for a fish to bite. I had no idea how to hook a fish.

There it was, at first just a little nibble, then a little stronger, then Nick was jumping up and down with excitement for me. He screeched, “Pull the line”! I gave it a big tug, yanking the line almost out of the water. I had never struggled so much, I was reeling the line in and the faster I reeled, the more the fish pulled back. My line was pulling out more and more -- I couldn’t stop it!

“Nick, HELP me!”, I hollered. He grabbed the fishing rod with me -- coaching me the whole while. The fish came flopping out of the water. It was gigantic! The line got tangled and I could not reel the line in. It was knotted at the top of the pole.

I fought for what seemed to be hours. The sun was going down. Surely my mom would be getting worried about me soon. She was always worrying about me.

I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t reel anymore.

I started walking backwards, and the fish pulled harder. I was being pulled forward and my first foot hit the water. It felt like the cold ice in December. In went my other foot!

I was standing, up to my knees in water, when out of nowhere Nick jumped in the water grabbed my line and started walking out into the lake. He was yelling and thrashing around, and before I knew, it he had my rod in the water and pulled out the biggest fish I had ever seen.

“What is it?!” I asked with amazement at the size, I had never seen anything like it in my life. It was a 40 lb. rainbow trout!

They weren’t even supposed to be in the lake we where fishing in. I ran back to town with Nick and showed my family what we had caught. Nick took the trout home with the agreement that he would come back to my place early the next day.

The next day we took the fish to the local pumpkin patch festival. There were Halloween decorations, food everywhere, and a contest going on where they had set the stage up.

We had a blast that day, won the contest for having the biggest fish there. I ate more food than you could ever think about, and took so many pictures that even now as I sit in my room looking at the pictures, I can still tell you every waking moment of our stay in Nova Scotia and my first fishing trip.

Jennifer Bain, October 9th, 2008.