A Fish Tale

Our neighbors invited us to join them at the 25th Annual Kids Fishing Tournament sponsored by the The Woodlands Kiwanis.  It's an international non-profit organization focused on kids.  They provided lunch, bait, and a stocked pond of catfish.  All we needed to bring was a fishing pole, so we took the kids to Academy where Christian chose Batman, surprise, surprise, and Alexander chose Speed Racer, his new thing.  To gain an advantage over the competition Murray gave a tutorial in the pool. 
   


Saturday morning after a leisurely pancake breakfast we show up at 8:45, only 45 minutes after it started, and the place was mobbed.  Not a spare inch of shoreline available.  After a few "Got All Muddy"'s from Murray, we squeezed in between the reeds and attempted to fish in 3 inches of pond scummy mud.  There were so many people fishing that lines were getting crossed and the only thing being caught was your neighbor's pole.  It reminded Murray of the scene in Jaws where everyone heads out in anything that floats trying to kill the shark for a reward.  What really made Murray angry was the groups of adults sitting around in their lawn chairs, taking up space at a KIDS fishing tournament.  He said if I was better back-up he would have "had a word" with them.  I'm not good back-up?  Anyway, the nasty pond was dense with chum, hot dogs (bait?), frogs, and bio-hazard-looking muck.  Naturally I stood there with Clorox wipes in one hand and Purell in the other.  Did I mention I looooove nature?





After 20 minutes Christian gave up.  He knew it was  a waste of time.  Alexander, however, was determined to be successful.  At one point he caught a stick, a big stick, which he saw as a sign that the "big one" was just minutes away.  After another hour we got him to throw in the towel and Murray promised to bring them back another time.  All the way home Alexander talked about the big stick he caught.  Murray, the big softy, felt so bad for Alexander he got them up at 7 the next morning and had them back at the pond before 7:30.  No one was there, so they got prime real estate and...





They were so proud.

~J