Jeff's Tales

I Caught Mom - "Hook, Line and Sinker"

It was the Summer of 1963, our family was on our annual two weeks vacation in Clayton, NY, located on the shores of the ST. Lawrence River. This was the year that I would not forget, at least with my fishing experiences.





Since the time I was old enough to hold a fishing pole and bait a hook,I would have my fishing equipment packed and loaded in our family station wagon for those two wonderful weeks on the banks of the St. Lawerence. My fishing time when not at the St.Lawrence for those two weeks was limited.  Because of this,  I never conqureed the art of casting, something that is important when especially fishing with lures.


It is of my opinion that there are (3) key steps to a succesful cast. The first being is sighting your zone of cast, where you want your lure to land. The second,  assuring that you had ample clearance behind you when you are about to fling your pole behind you. The third, being most critical, coordinating the release and forward motion of the pole and line. If successful,your fishing line will travel hundreds of feet in front of you. and will be labeled as the best cast. If unsuccessful, you could tangled with anything within a twenty-five feet could be in danger.





This lack of casting talent never discouraged me from practicing over and over. The Summer of 1963, was the fishing season that I was determned to turn around my casting skills, I was to conqure the failure of casting.. I remeber it was only our 2nd day of vacation and it was raining, but I was not going to let this stop me. to practice my casting, I took it upon myself to practice my casting in the cottage kitchen, although a lttle small, it would do just fine.                                .      I fetched my fishing pole from behind the kitchen door, I took my position, lowered my line down, pushed the reel button down, flung the pole behind me, then  d, I flung the pole forward. Then out of nowhere I heard a loud scream. that moment I just frooze, my first thoght was that my brother was pulling a prank. As I looked around for him, he was was in our parents bedroom comforting mom and yelling for me not to reel in my line, again he repeated "do not reel in your line". At that point, I dropped my fishing pole and ran into my parents bedroom to see what the hell was going on. What I saw next, was a sight that was not pretty, in front of me, was our poor mom, holding her mouth and moaning, with a fish hook in her lip,





I thought to myself "Holy s***, I am in big trouble". Yes, at nine years old, I used the s*** word, and what a better time to use it. I remeber mom trying to mumble out "get your father", I'm thinking, yea right, that s a certain death wish. I thought, if only I had a younger brother I could nail this on, but I didn't, so I might just as well face my death sentence and move on. I ran and got Pop, where he was out on the porch reading. Pop came in, and the decison was made that we had to "reel" mom in and get her to the closest hospital emergency room. Pop cut the line, not to "let her go", but to get her in the car.





Once we arrived at the emergency room, the doctor on duty removed the hook, put in a stich or two in her lip, and we "threw her back" in the river. Just kidiing, in fact I never even got punished for my stupidity, but I was informed that my casting days inside were over. I put up no argument on that decision.





For the rest of that two weeks vacation, I behaved very well, cleaned my room and pretty much laid low. To this day, mom (currently 86 yrs. old) and I joke about this incident and I let her know that it was one of my best catches ever (only 2nd to my wife Debbie) and am really glad we did not throw her back or better yet fillet her.





Thanks all and have a great day!!!!





Jeff Waters


 


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