Fishing In The Dark

As a child, I used to go fishing in the dark with my parents and grand parents. My family always said that the best fishing happened at dawn and at dusk. According to my family, the “best” fishing was when we went fishing in the dark.

I was seven years old the first time we fished in the dark. We were out on a boat and the lake was almost still. We used worms to fish and the water seemed nearly placid. As the boat rocked ever so gently, I could hear the water lightly lapping against the side of the boat and the moon shone brightly down on the water. We could see the fishing poles dip in the moonlight.

My grandfather loved to fish. He was a professional fisherman in my eyes. He taught me how to tie my hook and my line and how to put my worm and my salmon eggs on the hook. Fishing with grandpa always guaranteed at least one catch. Our boat was old but it was ours and we always caught fish when we went out. We especially caught fish when it was dark.

Sometimes we fished from the shore. We would wake up early in the morning or stay up after dark. If the moon was not out we would use flash lights so that we could see the end of the pole dip in the evening sky. The smell of the lake and the grass and the sound of crickets made fishing in the dark special and the company I kept was the best.

If we caught small fish we would throw them back. If we caught large fish we would keep them and put them on a stringer in the lake. Filleting the fish was always my least favorite part. Occasionally we would catch craw-dads; boil them and eat them. I always said that I hated eating craw-dads but I sure ate a lot of them.

Sometimes at night a family member would have a beer. Later in life, when I was old enough to taste beer, I remember being glad that I wasn’t allowed to drink it when I was young. I am not very fond of the taste of beer. I always loved the smell of beer, though, when we were fishing in the dark.

I love taking my kids fishing in the dark. We catch large fish and small fish. We bait our hook with worms and salmon eggs. We watch our poles dip in the moonlight and we always throw the small fish back. So far, we haven’t caught any craw-dads, but we have caught a couple of crabs. My grandpa used to say that when it was sprinkling or raining out, fishing in the dark was even better.

Last summer we went fishing in the dark when it was sprinkling outside. We caught a couple of small fish and we threw them back. I thought about my grandpa. My kids and I love fishing in the dark.