Today I went fishing with my dad for the first time. He took my cousin and I to the lake behind the pool near my house, and he went to the Kroger to get some bread for our bait. On the drive over, he kept bragging about this massive tarpon he caught while on a trip in the Bahamas when he was younger, but me and my cousin did not believe him at all. There was no way this guy could catch an 150 pound fish. Anyway, we got to the lake and put down our gear. It was a bit cloudy, but there was plenty of sun, and plenty of heat along with it. It was the middle of summer, so I should have expected it, but I did not bring a hat or any water. We walked around the bank to see if we could spot a good area with a lot of fish. After a couple minutes of walking, we came upon a weird structure jutting out into the middle of the lake. It was some sort of pier, and my cousin and I were able to walk along it, but my father could not. The structure was shaking a bit, and for a minute I thought I was going to fall through, but it was stable enough. We managed to spot a huge shadow darting around in the water below, and it seemed to be nearly as large as my entire body! We ran back to my dad, told him what we saw, and sat down and got to work. We all were determined to be the one to catch that monster fish.
After about an hour, we had sweat right through our clothes, and I soon wanted to give up. I was tired and wanted to go home and eat, but my father would not allow this. He ordered my cousin to see if there was anything to raid in the kitchen of the poolhouse, and he ran off to check. After a couple minutes, my father turned to me and said that I had to learn patience, or else I would not get anything done. My cousin came back with a couple bags of chips, and while we were watching our rods, we opened the crinkly bags and began to feast. Maybe half an hour later, my rod began to twitch. I got up to pick up the rod, but my father said once again to wait a second to let the fish hook. As soon as the line started running, I picked up and started reeling. It was a long and hard fight, with the fish almost pulling all of the line off my kiddie rod, but eventually I saw the bass flop onto the shore, and I was ecstatic. I walked over to it, and what a sight it was. The fish was the one I saw from above the water, and it was as long as my entire arm, and heavy as a rock. I picked it up and walked towards my father. My cousin, meanwhile, ran up the hill behind us, terrified. My father said it was my job to remove the hook, since it was my rod that caught it. I said I didn’t know how to, and my father grabbed the bass with the oven mitt and held it firm, telling me to stick my hand in and take the hook out. I swallowed down my nervousness and reached in. It was very wet and disgusting, but my fingers wrapped around the hook, and pulled it out. Overall, it was a very long, gruelling day, but it paid off in the end. I cannot wait for the next fishing trip!
For this remix I decided to turn my descriptive essay into a blog post from my perspective when I was a young kid. This experience gave me my love of the ocean and marine life, and writing the essay was weird, since I was reflecting back on days from years ago, but still vividly remember. This day in particular I remember very well because it was the first of many fishing trips I had with my father, each of which are a big part of me. I still remember how big the fish was compared to me, and taking the hook out. I even got pricked by one of the spines, spilling a bit of blood. My father still tells the story of how my cousin ran away from the fish as fast as he could, and every time he does, I think back to this wonderful day.