I'm a Virgo. Lists and organization is ideal to me. It comforts me. I'm at peace with both. So I keep coming back to my list and smile as I cross off yet another item. I know this is probably the last summer where I'll basically have both boys at my disposal to do things with, even if they bitch about hanging with us and not their friends.
So as I look through my list, I'm pleased as punch with the number of items I've been privileged to state I've accomplished. One of those said items was taking my boys fishing.
Let me back that statement up to let you know that I have NEVER been fishing in my life. Nope, never. Back in the spring I was approached by a sales rep for a distributor we use at work and offered the opportunity to go on a fishing charter with my kids for a day. I thought, meh, what the hell? It's better than a kick in the ass.
So after a failed (gratefully) attempt in June to take them we finally got out on the waters this past weekend. The weather was perfect. Calm with just a slight breeze, and the waters were serene. We headed out to the middle of Lake Ontario at 6 a.m. so the sun was right where we wanted it to be. Low. The boys both tried to get out the trip and hurt my feelings immensely in the process but I dragged them along after Eric laid them both with guilt trips and I refused to speak to them.
We met up with Steve from Fish Trap Charters in Port Dalhousie and headed out. Within 1/2 an hour we had pulled in our first fish of the day. Well Roan did. She was too little to keep so we snapped a picture and tossed her back in to be caught another day. We were quite successful throughout the whole day. The second fish we pulled in was reeled in by yours truly and it was a beaut. She was a Rainbow Trout and she weighed 15 lbs once we got her in. She fought me tooth and nail the entire time, flipping all over the place. I thought my left arm was going to burn off from the extreme workout I was giving it and almost felt close to how I felt when I was in labour trying to push my first kid out. I felt drained and tired and sure that I didn't have an ounce of strength left in me to finish the job. I did though. And I'm gonna EAT her too!!
The boys both had the opportunity to reel in a butt load of fish themselves which was great because it kept the trip enjoyable for them. Eric, who didn't want to catch any fish got caught up in the excitement and decided he too wanted to take a crack at reeling one in. And one he caught! She was a fighter, she pulled almost all of his line out and was probably closer to Hamilton than the boat, but he dragged her back in kicking and screaming. Got her all the way up to the back of the boat where Steve was waiting with the net and she snapped the lure. Gone. Just like that. Steve reckoned she was over 20 lbs. Man, that loss stung for the rest of the day. He felt a sense of redemption when he reeled in an 18 lbs salmon towards the end of the trip.
By the time we turned to head back to dock we figure we had about 100 lbs of fish and once Steve filleted it all for us, we are pretty sure we walked away with about 50 lbs of eatable meat. So now my freezer is full of trout and salmon. I've given some away and likely will give away more because I don't want it to be wasted.
Anyway, it was a great 5 1/2 hours on the water with Eric and the boys and Steve was an amazing host and I would HIGHLY recommend his services to anyone who would be interested in this sort of activity. Eric and I are thinking of going out with him again with our friends Jon and Laura sooner than later. Jon is a fisherman and would probably get a kick out of it.
I'm so grateful to the sales rep who put me onto this idea. I honestly would have never given this a thought otherwise and I'm so glad we got to experience it. The boys even admitted that they had fun and enjoyed it as well!! Double score!
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