Always a Rod & Reel Nearby

 

The photo above of me as a teen wasn’t from a fishing trip. Not something planned as a fishing trip anyway. I know by the dock shape it was taken at the Circle F Dude Ranch in Central Florida, which means it was from a retreat with my church youth group. 

Retreats always had full agendas, packed with meeting times, games, horseback riding, meals, chores, etc. Too much unstructured time with a bus load of middle schoolers and high schoolers doesn’t tend to lead to good things. Therefore, I probably didn’t have much time to fish. I can say with near certainty, though, that nearly every minute I had free that weekend was spent on that dock or along the shore, casting a plastic worm or some other lure.

I do remember catching some bass at the Circle F Dude Ranch. I don’t know if it was that day or even that trip. We went there a few times. That never mattered. If I was allowed to tote a rod on a retreat,  Scoit campout, church picnic, family vacation, or anywhere else, I always did, and I fished as long and as often as I could get away with. 

I remember that at our region’s Scout camp there was one very short dock where I could stand and fish, and realistically maybe four or five different casting angles, and I would stand in that one spot and cast for as long as the leaders would let me.

One weekend Scout trip, I wasn’t allowed to bring a rod because of space limitations. So instead I carried a spool of line and a Lazy Ike, and I repeatedly pitched it my lure out and retrieved it hand over hand. I’m pretty sure I didn’t catch anything with that method!

At every church picnic, I scrambled to the lakeshore upon arrival, fished until I was called to the potluck line, gobbled down some food, and scurried back to the lake until it was time to go home.

Not long ago my daughter and I were looking at photos from my high school yearbooks. She was amused because in two different years’ yearbook staff group shot, I was holding a fishing rod. Just me, for no obvious reason, in staff photos taken at the school. I couldn’t tell her why I had a rod and reel in both photos, but I also wasn’t surprised.

The year I was Student Life editor, that section had a Fishing spread. I don’t think that’s really the norm!

It seems some things don’t really change. I’ve just returned from a week on the coast as a 4H adult leader at a summer camp. Although I pretty much knew there would be no opportunity to fish, I still toted my travel rod, a reel and a small lure selection. As suspected, I never broke out the rod, but I had it along, just in case!