Millions of Fishes, Fishes for Free

So, I’ve always been a fan of fishing. It’s one of the few outdoorsy activities I enjoy. My dad used to take us as kids and my sister Annie and I would fight over who got to bonk the fish on the head with the club to kill it. Kind of gruesome now that I think about it, but fishing days are always happy memories to me. Like when we went ice fishing in Alaska and a stray dog wandered over and peed on The General’s leg. He was too busy hollering at us girls to stop scaring the fish to notice. That same trip, I caught a monster of a trout that snapped my line, and less than a second after I thought the fish I had wrestled was gone forever, but before I could even so much as stick my bottom lip out, my dad risked life and limb by plunging his arm into the hole and scooping the fish onto the ice. The thing was enormous. And it sat in our freezer for about 6 months before my mom pawned it off onto some missionaries.

Anyway, Jon loves fishing too, but when we were living in Idaho while he finished his degree, we were too poor to afford licenses. So we had to wait each year for one glorious day in July…FREE FISHING DAY. The one day a year we could legally catch-and-release as many fish as we wanted. Okay so that area in Idaho is supposed to be like, world renowned for the great fishing. Well maybe I made that up, but really, you’ve got the Henry’s Fork, and the Warm River, and it’s Outdoorsman’s paradise out there. So TWO YEARS in a row, after dutifully waiting for Free Fishing Day to roll around, then packing up our gear, and lunches, and inviting our friends along, and driving 30 minutes…we didn’t catch a single thing. Nothing. In the stupid Snake River (or some form of tributary). So the second year, we were really kind of mad about it, and we took a drive up to Idaho Falls to feed the ducks and blow off some steam from the totally wrecked fishing trip.

And here’s where this video comes in. First, a list of why this video makes me laugh.

1. Jon tries to count the ducks. You can’t see it very well… despite the thousands of dollars we spent on our amazing Canon Powershot A520..but there are literally hundreds and hundreds of geese in the canal alongside the falls. Mostly ugly babies, the kind that aren’t cute anymore, but all patchy and tufty and awkwardly large. There were some cute little babies too, but for the majority, we’re talking about the gangly ones.

2. Jon keeps telling me to throw the bread closer, to coax the babies over to us. But I’ve seen enough “Goose-On-A-Rampage” clips on America’s Funniest Home Videos to maintain a safe distance.

3. Jon gets worried each time I go a little too long without throwing them bread. He’s convinced that they will get “pissed off” if I keep them waiting.

4. I had NO IDEA he was taking a video, this entire time. Which explains why, near the end, he asks me to smile for the camera, and I turn for an awkward amount of time, showing my teeth and waiting for the flash.

Okay, so maybe it’s not that funny, but it’s one of only a few videos we have, so I’m posting it anyway.





So after we feed the ducks, we take a walk along the falls and notice a few families fishing along the banks. And then it HITS me – It’s STILL FREE FISHING DAY, and we have a fishing pole in the back of the Mazda! So we get all excited and pick out a spot directly across from the temple. By this point, the sun is beginning to go down so we’ve only got about an hour, and we only had a few scraps of bread to use for bait, but would you believe it…..



…we caught about 6 of the smallest little fish you’ve ever seen!



So Jon was pulling the hook out of this little friend when all of a sudden, BLOOD is smeared all over his hand. So I’m a little worried and asking him if he’s okay…..and he finally wrestled the hook out, put the fish back in the water, and swished his hand in it to clear off the blood. And he’s not saying anything, so I’m worried that he hooked himself good and doesn’t want to let me know just yet. But then when I pulled his hand to me to inspect it, he let me know that it was the fish’s blood, not his. And I’m the worst wife in the world, because THAT set me off …something to the effect of “ohhhhhh nnnnnnnooo, it was the FISH’S BLOOD??? POOR LITTLE FISH!!! It’s going to die!” Jon just had to give me one look that shut me up for good.

By this point the sun has set and we ended the adventure with this picture... one of my favorites I've taken so far with the Powershot (Which, by the way, was the cheapest digital camera we could find...... I was definitely joking about it costing thousands of dollars...)


PS- That's the camera case he's carrying....not a purse.....because my husband doesn't wear purses.....