Fish Tales

One night someone got the great idea to go fishing. Neither of my kids have been fishing even though they each have a really cute Shrek fishing pole. So we loaded up and off we went to Modean's (gotta love Arkie names) pond.

Ashlyn was the fish master. As soon as Dad handed her the pole she caught a pretty good size bass. Not bad for a city girl. Of course she would not hold it up for a picture but she was happy to pet it.

A couple of days later we were visiting my grandparents and Papa asked her if she caught a fish.
"Just a wittle one. Two wittle one." she said.
"No, no, no. That's not how you tell a fish story, Ashlyn. I explained. "When someone ask how big your fish was you hold your arms out really wide and say It was this BIG!."
So now when someone ask her how big her fish was holds her hands out wide and says "THIS BIG!". She's learned the all important lesson of how to tell a fish tale.

I don't remember if Dad or Mike who showed Braden how to cast but it only took a few tries and he did it. And it only took a minute for him to have a fish. Mike helped him get it in and Dad took it off the hook. Then he tried to hand it to Braden so I could take the ever important "first fish" picture. Braden gave Dad the best "are you smokin' crack?" face I've ever seen. (he made me proud. ha)

There was no way on God's green Earth that Braden was going to touch that fish and he certainly wasn't going to put his finger in it's mouth. So Dad put the hook back in it's mouth so I could take a picture of him with it.

Then it was time to throw it back in. Braden started screaming "NO NO NO. It has a hole in its mouth it's going to die. It needs medicine." Of course Dad threw it back in the water and Braden stood on the bank waiting for it float to the top. After a few minutes he was satisfied that the hole in it's mouth must be better since the fish wasn't dead and he was ready to try for a second one.

The problem then was that since he had caught a fish on his first try, he was sure that he was an expert. He was slinging that hook all over the place. He looked like Goofy doing the perfect cast.

No one was hooked and they both caught a fish so it was great evening.

that picture is Dad showing him how to hold the fish and Braden giving the "are you smokin' crack" face.