Adventures in fishing

So today, after being MIA for 3 months, Alex's father finally took him for a visit.

Daniel and I headed over to The Dude's house, and Daniel stayed with The Dude's mother for a few hours while we went fishing. Alone. With no kids.

We took off toward the lake, and decided to try a new fishing spot this time. We found what looked to be a great spot - wide open, no other people in sight, no overhanging limbs - perfect, right?

Yeah. Except for this. And he was very content with his location. We, on the other hand, were not - but we wanted to stay. We tried to scare him with noise .... then tossed a few sticks toward him .... then a few pebbles.

Finally, he got annoyed with us and took off. But just to prove his point, he stayed in the area for quite a while - and just kept swimming back and forth in front of us. After a while, he disappeared and didn't come back.

There were a lot of cranes in the area - there was one that hung out across the water from us for quite a while, but he wouldn't come close enough for me to get a really good picture.

This one was a little bit more cooperative - but not very much.

The weather was a little questionable at first - there was the possibility of getting some pretty severe storms, so we kept one eye on the sky and our ear on the radio until they blew over, and then we settled in for a few hours.

So anyway....it was yet another not-so-good fishing day, but we ended up with a really amusing story that leads up to our biggest catch of the day.

No, his stick was not the biggest catch of the day.

The Dude apparently has a turtle fetish. Or they love him. Whichever way it goes, he couldn't catch anything but turtles today. The first one that he caught was pretty decent-sized, but he got off the line before he got him out of the water and onto dry land, so we didn't get a picture of him.

The second one, however - created all sorts of havoc.

He got hooked right in the foot - actually, just through the skin, so it wasn't a horrible wound for him. The Dude brought him over to me so that I could help to get the hook out, so I laid my pole down on the ground next to my chair. He was holding the line out of the way, while I held on to the turtle and worked on getting the hook out of his foot. At the same time, I noticed that my pole was starting to jump around in the grass.

Really? I get a bite, NOW?!?!?

The hook came out of the turtle's foot and I went to put him down in the grass, and the turtle reached around and bit me on the knuckle - and then ran back to the water (yes, he ran). At about this time, The Dude noticed my pole jumping around in the grass. I grabbed it immediately and then realized that I had another problem.

The Dude: Babe, do your thing! (meaning "reel him in!")

Me: Um, you want to get your hook out of my finger first?

The Dude: Oh crap! *reaches over and pulls his hook out of my finger*

Me: *proceeds to reel my line in*

And after all of that, what did I end up with?

A carp. Woo. Hoo.

So in about 5 or 6 hours of fishing, we caught a stick, 3 turtles, and a carp. After the third turtle, we called it quits because we had to get back into town and get some stuff done. Again, not the best fishing ever, but it was so nice to be able to just sit back and relax and not worry about the kids and just enjoy each other's company. I struggled with Alex going with his father today, and sitting out there by the water while I processed my emotions really helped me to clear my head.

Hopefully we'll be able to go fishing more this summer, and even take all of the kids out at some point - I would still like to take them all camping before we leave for TMOART:12 just to see how they all do in the tent, but we'll see if we can make that happen or not.

And of course, speaking of TMOART:12, don't forget about the auction on my facebook page to raise some extra money to cover some unexpected expenses leading up to the trips. You know, like the 2 tires that I hadn't planned on buying, but I really need to buy before we leave. Stuff like that. Ugh.