Salmon is famous for two main things: being the birthplace of Sacajawea, and having the Salmon River. The Salmon River is full of Steelhead, and in the spring and fall, the fishermen line the river for miles, both in boats and along the riverbank, hoping to catch a good bite.
We are not fishermen. Josh hates fish--he won't eat it and he dislikes the smell of it. I'm not allowed to cook fish in our house because the smell makes him sick. So, we don't do a lot of fishing.
Sometimes, though, when we are camping, or there's a fishing derby, we take the boys because they are interested in fishing. I will eat the fish if they catch it, and I'll cook it over a campfire or on the outdoor grill. Because, unlike Josh, I do like fish. In fact, I love seafood of any kind!
The first weekend of June was the Fish & Game's summer fishing derby. I'd never taken the boys to it before, because we're usually gone the weekend it's held, but I decided to take the youngest 3 boys to it this year. They go almost every year to the winter ice fishing derby, but this was at a different spot: the Kid's Creek Pond close to town.
That Saturday morning, we packed up all the fishing gear and poles and snacks and drinks and drove to town. I had never taken the boys to a fishing derby without Josh, but he was at a church service project with Ammon, so I was on my own with the youngest 3 boys. When we arrived, we signed in with the Fish & Game, then picked a spot along the pond, and the boys began fishing.
We spent 3 hours there. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and I worked on getting my tan while watching the boys, and of course constantly helping them attach bait to their hooks or untangling moss from their lines. Everyone around us was catching fish. Seriously. Everyone to the left, everyone to the right, everyone across the pond from us. The kid to our left caught 9 fish. The kid to their left caught 3 fish. The kids to our right caught 3 fish. The kid across the pond caught 7 fish. Every time one of them walked by us with another fish they caught to go get weighed, I would ask what bait they used, and I would try that same bait on one of my boys' fishing hooks. We tried colored marshmallows, worms, salmon eggs, and five kinds of power bait--all with no avail. We walked away empty-handed after 3 hours. I was disappointed, and so were the twins.
That's the bad thing about attending a fishing derby: you are aware of everyone else who's catching fish, and it's hard to maintain patience after you don't catch a single bite. I was really irritated by the time we were done--but I maintained my happy façade for the boys so they wouldn't pick up on my attitude and start hating fishing (although by the time the kids around us were catching their 5th, 6th, &7th fish I quit congratulating them and smiling at them in their excitement). I'm really proud of my boys for not ever vocally expressing what I was inwardly thinking. They never complained or whined while we were sitting by the pond--they were still so eager to catch a fish even after 3 hours of waiting for one and the time for the derby ended. I confess I even said multiple prayers that they would catch one because they wanted it so badly, and I wanted it for them.
The worst part of it for me is that the kid to our left (who caught 9 fish) didn't actually catch a single one--his dad did. The kid was only about 2 years old (if that), and he wasn't interested in fishing. He liked laying on the grass and picking flowers and watching dogs and eating snack food--typical two year old stuff. Every time the dad caught a fish, he would scream "{insert boys name}, you caught another fish!", and then the little boy would come look at it, and the dad would make him go with him to the fish-weighing table. After about the 7th fish, I was wishing they would just leave so that the rest of us could have a chance. And the sister (or babysitter or girlfriend, I don't know) kept threatening that they would leave because the boy wasn't helping to catch any fish. But they didn't. My boys kept inching closer towards them in hopes for catching some of the fish that were still left in their area of the water, but that strategy didn't work, because they were still catching the fish and we weren't. I was proud of my boys for doing their own casting, their own waiting, their own fishing, and I was angry that an adult was taking excessive advantage of the situation (and taking away all the fish, too). When the dad caught fish #8, the little boy brought over their power bait to me and said "this is what we use". I wasn't sure if that meant we should also have some, or if he was just showing me what was working so well for them. I wasn't expecting him to approach me, and I was caught off guard, and I didn't know what to do. I looked at the dad, wondering if he had sent the boy over, but the dad had just as blank of a face as me. I drew a blank, my mind froze...do I take some of their bait, do I say "Oh, that's nice", do I say "get back to your fishing pole, kid"? He just kept standing there, holding the container of power bait up at me, and I kept looking back at him stone-faced. He was too cute, but I was already too agitated and in the wrong frame of mind to know how to handle the situation like a normal person. Finally I said "Oh look, we have some like that too", and I pulled a similar kind out of my tackle box, and he turned around and walked back by his dad.
But, the nice thing about going to a fishing derby is that everyone receives prizes at the end, regardless of whether they catch a fish or not. The winners all get cool stuff like new poles and tackle boxes. My boys left with new hats full of little fishing items, and that was enough to keep Kanyon happy. He wanted to go home and fish some more in Grandpa's pond right then! (But we didn't, because I'd had enough fishing for one day already.)
Even though Josh doesn't like to eat fish, he has a lot more patience trying to catch fish with the boys and spending time helping them to do that. I'm the opposite: even though I like eating fish, I prefer to not have to do the fishing! I learned my lesson; next time, I'll either have Josh go with us or we won't go at all!
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