Fishing Hole

Yesterday was our last day in Ohio. When we woke up and asked Robby what he wanted to do, his answer was firm and immediate. "Momom, I want to go fishing." Thankfully Grandma knew a great little fishing pond, and his request was easy to grant!

Robby's Uncle Jeff assembled the fishing pole that Robby won during the fishing derby last month. He gave us all a brief tutorial on how to use it and explained the various items in the tackle box. We grabbed a few hot dogs from the freezer and headed out to fish.

Robby was excited to give his new prize a whirl and raced his Daddy down to the pond as soon as we parked the car. I baited the hook and handed the rod to Robby. I asked him to hold onto the pole and turned my back to hand Scott the remaining hot dog. In those few seconds Robby had dropped the line and hooked a fish. I no sooner handed off the bait then I was wrestling with a flipping fish on the dock.

I tried to steady the poor little fish with my foot so that I could remove the hook from his little lips, but my efforts only seemed to agitate him. It took a few seconds for me to realize that trying to hold him still by steadying him under my prosthetic foot was probably not the best approach. I can't distinguish how much weight I'm applying under my prosthesis and, although I tried to be gentle,  I think I partly squished the poor little fishy's tail. I finally freed the hook and put him back in the water, but he didn't swim away quickly and I'm pretty sure he wasn't just relaxing when I saw him floating in the distance.

Almost as soon as I freed (and disabled) the first fish, Robby was pulling in another. This time he enthusiastically screamed, "I've got you now you little fishy b@st@ard." Poor Grandma almost fell into the water hearing that exclamation come pouring so naturally out of my little boy's mouth. 


While Scott pulled Robby to the side to discuss his use of colorful language, I worked on unhooking the wiggly and scaly catch. I learned from my prosthesis squishing mistake and steadied the remaining fish with my biological foot. Although using my right leg changed my angle of approach, I was able to get a rhythm unhooking our little swimming friends. I had a lot of practice figuring out the most efficient, and the safest way to free the fish from the hook during the afternoon. In total Robby caught twelve fish!

My little fisherman had a great time fishing in Ohio and, although we had a lot of fun visiting with family, I'm fairly confident that this experience will be his most vivid and fondest memory. After all, it isn't everyday you hook so many fish so quickly!