The Terror Of Tiny Fish

I was able to spend the day with my sisters 10 year old nephew and what fun we had.  We went fishing at the Tooele Reservoir for fish and crawdads.  Sadly no crawdads were to be found, but quite a few baby fish were present.

As so often happens with 10 year old boys, keeping their attention on one task or in one place is nearly impossible.  After sitting with his pole for a good 30 minutes or so he started to walk around trying to find crawdads to use as "bait".  He would go to the shoreline, move a big rock and stand poised with his net in case a crawdad would suddenly dart out and appear.  No luck.  Where we were fishing held no crawdads for him.  He had to find a different honey hole.  On the shoreline a quarter of the lake away he kept noticing a young girl pull up fish after fish and catch things in a bucket near the shoreline.  Of course this is where he "needed" to be to be successful.

Not wanting him to go alone I decided I would venture with him on his quest.  The goal in his mind was crawdads, but when he came to the spot that he sought what was he to find but hundreds of tiny baby fish.  There weren't just schools of fish.  There were teams from rival schools of fish all gathered together in one location.  Now, I feel that it is kind of cheating to catch baby fish in a net, but that was what happened.  Good thing these fish are fast and only a few were actually caught this way.

He would splash into the water, jab his net at a group of fish and end up flinging one or two to the shore.  He would then (after my urging) run to the shore and toss the fish back in so that they would live to see another day and hopefully grow up to be big fish that can be caught on a line.  He wanted to show my dad what he had caught so I found him a cup that he was able to put 4 baby fish in.  After hiking back to where my father, mother, and sister were he showed them his success and then released them back into the water.  Exclaiming that he had out fished them all.  Which I guess technically was true.

By the end of the fishing expedition he was soaked up to his knees,  I was burned to a crisp by the sun, and I think fun was had by all.  Well, maybe not my dad because his fishing line kept tangling, but it was an enjoyable day.

Time to go soak in aloe vera.