My Worst Day Fishing

I’ve never met a fisherman who has never had a bad day. Even on the good days fishing, something goes wrong, like when a fish shook a hook out of its mouth and up and through my brother’s nose, or when dear Harland went to cast but accidentally tossed his hole pole in the water, or when I thought I had a big fish but it was a tangled mess of other fishing lines and lures. But my worst day fishing when I was just 7-years-old. 

Paige, 7-years-old, fishing at my favorite spot

We had spent the morning fishing in my absolute favorite fishing spot - the same spot where I’ve raced my dad to see who could catch 50 and then 100 fish the fastest. It’s that good. This honey hole is about a 45 minute boat ride from where we stay. As we started the ride home, a prop on the motor broke so we couldn't get the boat on plane. We were stranded without a human or house in sight. This was back in the day before cell phones and in an extremely rural area. So, my dad fired up the trolling motor and we slowly inched our way home. My dad and brothers took advantage of the situation by tossing out their lines and fishing the entire way. I had fished all morning, and I was 7 - I was bored out of my mind! It finally got to the point that my dad tied one end of a rope onto the boat and the other end onto my life jacket and tossed me into the lake. I swam on one side of the boat while the boys fished on the other side of the boat. Four hours later, the skies had darkened and a storm loomed but we finally made it home with a story to tell our family who had anxiously been waiting for our return from our big day fishing. 

I learned at a young age that even a bad day can be good when its spent fishing - and it's often the bad days that make the best stories.