Catching Fish - By Accident

I took my son fishing last year. We caught a fish - on accident.

We bought a house that has a small lake in the back yard and the previous owners left an old fiberglass canoe buried in the grass. My first launch of this canoe quickly resulted in many gallons of water in the bottom from several large cracks from years of sitting unattended in the hot Florida sun. It took a few weeks (mixed with a couple ounces of frustration and a few beers) to get it 'sea worthy' but at last it was holding out the water and we were able to take it for a cruise.

I considered that a quality activity with my son would be to try our hands at catch and release fishing. Neither of us had any experience fishing so we set out to get what was needed without seeking any advice. Thankfully, I think, Wal-Mart makes kits and rods in such a way that confidence was instilled even though it shouldn't have. We paddled out to the middle of the lake and started casting. And casting. Then sweating. Mix in a few tangled string events and a lot more casting and we were both getting hot and tired of our lack of success. Not to let the day be ruined, we decided to just paddle around. Neither of us thought about reeling in the lure at this time as we figured nothing was biting anyway. So, with our attention turned to synchronized paddling, we switched gears and started to enjoy the wonderful Florida weather. It wasn't too long into this process when my son realized that our rod, which was placed in the rod-holder was bounding and under stress. Wow! We had caught a fish and weren't even trying anymore! We reeled in a small bass and snapped a few photos before releasing it back to the water. We looked at each other with a look of disbelief. That after all that time trying to accomplish something, it happened when we weren't even really thinking about it anymore.

And there is the principle of this article. Countless times in life we will set out to accomplish something and get discouraged that our actions, even if planned well, are not yielding the results we had dreamed. This isn't reason to give up, but instead reason enough to let those actions simmer while we focus elsewhere and let time compound the interest of our investment until we are rewarded with what we were looking for.

Good things come to those who wait - be patient in life with yourself and with others. You will get there eventually!

Seth