9/23/2023 Guest Blog by Jill Loewer – When Jill sent me this blog, I immediately thought my readers would enjoy it. It is the story of my best day over the summer.

“Once you have it in your hands, hold it way out in front of you and closer to the camera.  This will make it look much larger when the photo is taken.”  I was in a fly fishing class and the instructor was wryly explaining the proper technique for showing off your ‘catch’.

I wasn’t an avid fisher, but when offered a class in fly fishing I jumped at the chance to learn something new.  It was an art form we were learning on a picture-perfect fall day in Vermont – the various techniques and materials used to create artificial flies and the casting techniques which required a patient, light touch as we flicked the rods left then right and then forward in a long arc.

I heard another fish story recently from a family friend – something of a different sort than the stories told at the elite fly fishing class I had attended.  This story starts on a recent July morning on a lake in Maine.  The sky was blue and the lake’s surface smooth when nine-year-old Amaya and her younger cousin, Miles, awoke before the rest of the household for their fishing lesson.  They were eager to join their grandfather, Ned, at the lake house dock for the annual family fishing day.  This summer day, the sunfish were clearly visible near the dock and Ned was there to show his grandchildren how to bait a hook, cast the line, and wait for a bite.  The family tackle boxes with the fancy lures were forgotten as wiggly worm after worm were added to the lines.  The sunfish were hungry that morning and it was difficult to keep up with the constant sunfish bites.  Ned was kept very busy removing the hook from the small fishes’ mouths and tossing them back into the lake.  

Ned convinced Amaya to let him use one of her smaller sunfish to bait his fancier casting rod but that rod was mostly forgotten with all the activity helping the grandchildren – until his line vibrated.  Ned let out a scream of recognition – it was something bigger after the bait on his fishing rod.  After a battle with this bigger fish, which seemed to go on for several minutes, Ned’s rod bending over almost double, the fish was reeled in and lifted out of the water.  Another struggle ensued as Ned tried to capture the slippery, flopping fish.  Reaching into the fish’s mouth and grabbing the gills, the battle was over.  A seventeen-inch, three pound large-mouth bass lay at their feet.  Amaya was ecstatic that her four-inch ‘sunny’ caught the biggest fish of the day.  “Should we bring it home for dinner?” Ned asked.  Amaya and Miles agreed and they brought the day’s big catch to the lake house kitchen. 

The grandchildren watched eagerly as grandfather gutted the fish.  This final prep step revealed a big surprise… a four inch, still intact, sunfish within the larger fish’s belly. The children had forgotten about the sunfish used as bait.  They were amazed at this discovery and wanted to use the sunfish again, claiming they had caught the bass because their “bait” fish had been what attracted the big fish.  The bass was cooked on the outdoor grill and the family enjoyed their fresh-catch meal.

Fishing with custom-made flies and expensive rods is a passionate hobby pursued by many, but a grandfather patiently teaching his grandchildren how to bait a hook with a simple worm and casting a light-weight spinning rod into a crystal-clear lake is perhaps the more rewarding goal for a multi-generation outing….and the better ‘big fish’ story.

For more from Jill – go to https://jillloewer.substack.com/