A Fish Tale

If you're from the Bayou, you're probably familiar with these guys...

My son is officially a Bayou La Batrian now. This past weekend was relatively quiet on our little plot of N. Wintzell. My eldest spent the weekend away with my in-laws at the Cheersport national competition in Atlanta. Needless to say, the absence of his favorite playmate left Joseph more than a little bummed out. To attempt to balance things out a little bit, we tried to do some things that he wanted to do over the weekend. For some time now, Joseph has been wanting to go fishing. He loves seeing the fish when his Pop and I catch them and he loves to pretend fish so, first up, we took a fishing trip.

Friday afternoon, Joseph and I headed to the Bayou with a light, our rods, and a little bit of squid en route to our first father-son fishing trip. If any of you have ever fished with an almost 3 year-old you know what an adventure this can be. (Protective eyewear should be worn at all times when fishing with an almost 3 year-old) He and I had different goals for the fishing trip. When asked what he hoped to catch, Joseph replied "like a thousand sharks". Needless to say, this was not my plan. I hoped to catch something that would require as little effort as possible and be insignificant enough not to feel bad about throwing back. So, with that in mind, we went to work with little success. By little success, I mean "not so much as a single bite". After moving locations a few times around the shipyard, I made an executive decision to set up a light and take a break until dark. We made a bug juice/Coca-Cola run to the Raceway and waited on night to fall.

By the time we made it back to the yard, it was good and dark and the light was beginning to attract some minnows to the top of the water. We were ready to try it again. Almost immediately, I felt a tug at my line and I knew that I had hooked something small. My catch? A croaker. (For any of my out of town readers, check out the picture above) I cast again and over the next few minutes Joseph and I caught 3 croakers. They were perfect. He got to help reel them in, they were biting pretty quickly, and I had no desire to keep them.

Joseph was quite excited by the catch, but after nearly 3 hours of fishing, he was about ready to call it a night. I started to gather our things to head home, when he stopped me and said "Thank you Daddy, for letting me come along with you". It hit me then that he didn't know what I was doing. He had no idea that the trip was for him. I wasn't going fishing that night for me, but I was doing it for him. I was being intentional about blessing him, but he was just happy for the chance to be with me.

How often do we miss it? Maybe they don't come everyday, but our lives are full of opportunities to give people the greatest gift we have- time. Moms and Dads, Grandmas and Grandpas, and even you kids out there. Don't miss the chance to spend some time with those that you love. It doesn't have to be anything that special. You can just go catch a few croakers down on the bayou. Just do it together.

That's the view around here, on N. Wintzell.