The Big Catch… Fruit of Patience and Perseverance

Three days, three early mornings lugging deep-sea rods and tackle down the half-mile pier. Three days of constant casting in the Florida sun. Three days of water logged cigar minnows removed and replaced with fresh ones. In three days of fishing I had only hooked one, a bonito, which promptly stripped my line straight out to the end of the pier, past the other fishermen who had no desire to reel their lines in as a 9-year-old boy weaved under and over their lines to reach the far end of the pier. I never made it. The line tangles put too much pressure on my fishing line and it snapped, after so many days of getting skunked I was nearly done, just ready to spend the day at the beach. For several years growing up a family friend let us use his Pensacola, Florida, beach house for vacation. We’d sometimes team up with another family or I’d get to drag a friend along and we’d cruise down I-55 through Mississippi, cross through a bit of Alabama, and hit Florida. Different than most folks we knew, the beach would not be the sole activity each day. The guys went fishing, everyday, from morning till early afternoon. We’d always go to the same pier in nearby Navarre, to cast cigar minnows and hope for a big haul. Dad had once caught a monster King Mackerel on that pier, so I’d always dream of following in his footsteps. When I was little, I’d drop the line from my little Zebco 202 with chunks of meat on the hook and catch Triggerfish galore, even caught a Lionfish and a puffed up Blowfish that I thought would tear the gears in my reel before I managed to get it up on the pier. But this time was different, I was fishing with the big boys now. No longer would I be catching “bait”, I was going for the big fish. Dad taught my best friend and me how to throw the huge, double-handed deep-sea rods and how to bait them with the frozen cigar minnows. We casted for two days while watching the fishing demigods at the end of the pier lift doubled rods high as fish after fish bit their line. The end of the pier became a place of arrival, a bastion of the great fishermen, and I wished with all my might that I might go there. We both had our chance when I hooked my Bonito and my buddy hooked his, but they both ended in tangled, broke lines and frustrated people. After that, nothing, not a bite, nibble, tug, nothing happened. It was an angler’s desert, and the sun baked us. I baited halfheartedly, my dad having tied a trailer hook because of periodic chomps of the back half. I didn’t believe it would work and I began to think that all I wanted at that moment was the beach. I casted my line, sat down the rod, and grabbed a cold soda. As I drank, I spotted my rod over the rim of my can, the tip bounced, then bent, then the rod seesawed on the rail. I grabbed it and set the hook and the reel sang. It whined, the line rolling off the spool and the fish turned, instinctively heading out to the deep, which meant I had a long run to the end of the pier. Folks were a lot more accommodating this time, some reeled in and stepped out of the way while other guided me over their rods or under them to guard against tangles. I rushed to the end, scared I would only lose this one as well. Finally, the singing stopped and I started the heavy work of pulling and cranking. Dad stood behind me and coached, encouraged, and the fish would answer my cranking with extended stints of heading back out. It was tug-o-war, cat-and mouse, but I felt like I was the mouse. The fish seemed tireless and my arms burned after nearly 15 minutes of fighting. Some of the greats at the end of the pier sat down their rods and watched me fight. Many offered advice, others cheered me on, and finally one spotted the beast, “Shark! It’s a shark!” The blood drained from my face. Less than 100 yards away was the creature of my nightmares. I had seen Jaws and wouldn’t venture in the surf deeper than my knee and now one was on the end of my line. I had been fighting this thing for nearly 20 minutes and the news was too much. I asked Dad if he’d take over. “No, son,” he replied, “You hooked this fish, you gotta land him.” Later, I heard him tell folks that after all I’d fought for, he couldn’t live with himself if he’d lost it for me. I had to reach down deep and muster the strength. As I pulled and cranked, I spotted it; leopardy spots dotted its light blue-grey skin. The shark was hardly swimming, worn down from the fight. Finally, I held it steady directly under the 30- foot high pier as another fisherman lowered his extra large gaff to lift it up on the decking. Once he hooked it, I cleared out of the way and watched as it snapped and swayed its way over the rail. It was a full-grown leopard shark, measuring 4 ½ feet long and weighing 33 ½ pounds. It was as long as I was tall at the time. The folks at the end of the pier clapped, cheered, shook my hand, and took pictures. Dad determined to get that thing hung on the wall no matter how much the cost. We dragged the shark down the pier with it sticking halfway out of a cooler and threw it into the back of our van driving for an hour looking for a taxidermist. Once we dropped the shark off and then headed home a few days later, Dad wrote a little play by play on the catch and sent it to both city newspapers. Months later, after the shark arrived in a wooden crate that resembled a small wild-west coffin, Dad had the clipped articles and put them on a plaque with a shark jaw I’d bought at a souvenir shop and hung it alongside the catch. Of all the animals that hung on my parents’ wall, that shark is the only thing that made it with me down to my home here in Texas where it rests on my sons’ wall. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about life, it’s that patience and perseverance succeeds. In fact, all of life is about making the choice of instant gratification or waiting for the best time; about fighting to the end or quitting. Patience and perseverance have become as rare as a herd of buffalo. Society demands instant and easy, we want it now, nobody wants to pay their dues. For instance, the town we live in is pretty well-off, which is what my mom would say if it was going overboard to say folks were rich. If you drive through the high school parking lot, you’ll see brand new, top-of-the-line sport cars, and jacked up, decked out pickups. Many parents here have bought these vehicles, which are way better than mine, and their kid doesn’t even work to put gas in it. They have the best, they have it now, and they didn’t have to struggle for it. The result is an attitude of entitlement. I see it all the time, kids have come to the belief that they should get what they want, when they want it, and they shouldn’t have to work for it. They are entitled to it because that’s what parents do for kids. Yet, I know that one day momma and daddy won’t pay for little Jimmy’s Diesel and he’ll be left to the real world; a world that takes advantage of impatience (by ripping you off) and is cruel and tough and demands perseverance. In the outdoors, especially, if you are fishing and hunting, impatience is probably the number one reason folks don’t catch fish or kill a deer. You have to wait for the animal to show itself or the fish to bite; you have to hang in there and not give in to the voices that tell you, “There ain’t no fish in this pond.” I learned that lesson that day with my shark. By day three of catching next to nothing, I was ready to give up and hit the beach. I lacked the courage to tell that to my dad and I’m now thankful for that fear. That time that I sulked, Dad thought, and his idea for the trailer hook is what actually caught that shark. Also, I’m thankful that Dad refused to help. He told me later on that he wasn’t trying to be mean, he just was scared to death that he’d lose it for me. After I watched the men heave that trophy over the rail, I was so glad Dad had refused because I eventually landed that fish and the self-confidence from that event has impacted so many facets of my life ever since. Some Practical Dad Tips… When you start taking your kid into the outdoors, know that they will get bored. I love being out, but even I get sick of nothing happening; and it will happen. You will have days where nothing touches the line or not even a squirrel scampers in the trees. But don’t let that keep you from taking your kid. Just have a plan in mind before you go. If your child is young, plan short trips of an hour or two. Don’t cut out earlier than that, just know that if you get on the water at 8, you plan to be done by 10. If you guys start really catching, be flexible enough to stay as long as your kid wants. In Florida, Dad had planned for us to fish till near lunch, then we’d head home, but we were well past lunch after I hooked up with the shark. Just know that the more in in the woods and water, the more chance you’ll have for success. Go often and grow your time out there. When your kid struggles, resist the temptation to intervene. My dad was a master here. Everything we did, he’d eventually say, “ok, bud, take over” and I was left to do the deed myself. If I struggled, he encouraged. If I failed, he encouraged, but rarely ever did he ever intervene. The helicopter parents today that call college deans to try to legislate for better grades would have burned my old man in effigy. I know it’s hard, especially if your kid has a monster on the end of his line. You see the end, the photos and the bragging sessions, and yet, I learned how to grow up, learned how to fail, and I eventually I learned how to hang in there and never, ever quit. Eventually, your kid will develop a tolerance for a long sit in a duck blind or in a bed of lily pads and eventually, they’ll get the thrill of their life, but more than that, they’ll develop a patience and endurance that will serve them not only in the wild, but in the modern world where their willingness to endure and wait will put them ahead of nearly everyone around them.

Hook, Line, and Sinker… Getting Kids into the Outdoors

The webs stretched everywhere in the boat shed, like a low-morning fog, they floated in every corner, across every opening, draped across every boat. The little engineers crouched in the centers and in corners ready to add to their collection of dangling mosquito corpses. I was pretty reticent to get anywhere near the webs. The place stunk, like a porta-potty, but with a fishy kind of odor. This was going to be my first, real fishing trip and although it was over 30 years ago, I remember it like yesterday. Up to that point I had only dropped a line in a trout tank at the annual Mid-South Boat Show. This; however, was a new world and I didn’t know if I was up to it. Dad walked down from the lake’s office with one hand clutching two long sticks, that looked like tree limbs and the other holding a contraption that had a fan attached to one end. I would soon learn that the little thing was a trolling motor and as it hummed, our boat would glide along in the water. He then grabbed a big heavy block and a small round paper box. He piled all the stuff on the dock and then stepped over into one of the boats. Item by item he loaded and placed in particular spots. Then he grabbed something that looked like orange pillows connected by strings and fit it over my head. He called it a life vest and told me I had to keep it on the entire time. I cringed at first because the pillows had been touching the webs. He told me to step in the boat. I was scared but I didn’t want him to know that I didn’t want anywhere near the spiders and webs that he seemed to nonchalantly wave away and crash through. I set foot on the metal front step and grabbed everything below me because the world beneath my feet no longer held steady. I moved, it moved, and I plopped down quick. He shoved off and we floated out of the slip and into the lake. The water plinked and gurgled under the metal floor of the boat. A new world floated around me: water, trees, logs. Dad turned the boat and headed down the lake to a spot he fished years ago. As we cruised he told me to turn around and smile as he snapped a picture, then we turned in a shadowed cove. He unwrapped the line from the long cane poles, slipped on corks, tied on a hook, and bit a small piece of lead on a spot just above the hook. Then he reached in the carton and pulled out a squiggly, muddy worm, and threaded it on the hook, wrapping it all around. “Now, son, you just swing the line out and let it plop right next to a log or stump, not out in the middle. Watch the cork, when it goes under, lift up gently.” I tried to do as he told but it wasn’t as easy to control that line as it looked and I found myself wrapping it over the branches above. “Now, fish don’t live up in trees,” he giggled. Then he handed me his pole while he fixed the one I messed up, “Good fisherman get tangled cause they’re fishing where the fish are,” he followed with encouragement. That was Dad’s way. He’d hand me his pole and fix whatever problem I created while offering advice on how to improve. Sometimes, I’d sense his frustration, but rarely, if ever, would he turn it into confrontation. Yet, frustration dissipated as soon as that cork went under. I lifted just as he said and the pole doubled and wiggled all around as the fish fought on the other end. In my excitement I yanked and the bream flew up into the air and over the other side of the boat and banged against the hull. After a few more swings, Dad was able to catch the fish and take him off the line. He even turned the bottom of the fish around as it squirted, trying to get me. He had me touch the fish as he held it, showed me the pressure points that would make them go still, and then he took it off the hook and put it in the cooler. He re-baited my hook and the fun started all over again. That evening, when we returned home, Dad took me in the back yard and made me watch him clean the fish. He grabbed a spoon and a sharp knife and removed the scales by scraping from the tailfin to the head with the spoon. Then he removed the head and then the entrails and placed the fish in cold water. It was a lot of work but Dad was not going to waste a life. After the cleaning, he shook the fish in a bag of cornmeal and dropped them in hot oil and then showed me how to de-bone the tasty, hot morsels. I was a little scared of eating them at first, probably the shock of seeing them die just a little while before, but my pride in having caught dinner overcame the fear and I enjoyed the light, flaky-white meat. It was an experience like no other in my life up to that time. It was so fun and I saw so much success that I was, pardon the pun, hooked. I couldn’t wait till the next trip and to my excitement, we went back the next week and then the next. Eventually Dad bought a boat and we fished every Wednesday in the summer at lakes all over until school started back—it was our summer activity for the next 10 years. If you want to make your kid’s first experience in the wild to be a long hike, lace up those boots. If you want to take them camping, grab that tent and the smores stuff and have at it. If you want that first opportunity and learning lesson to be on a hunt, then find that spot, get in early, and have a sit. Ultimately, you are introducing your kid to the outdoors, so it’s a great thing no matter what you do. However, since it is their first time and you want them to have the most exciting, activity-filled event as possible, fishing, especially fishing for panfish, I believe, nets the greatest results. Talk to the majority of fishermen all over the United States and most of them, when they reminisce about their first fish, will describe fishing with a bobber and a worm baited hook for panfish. Some of us still love fishing for these all-American swimmers because they not only taste wonderful, but they are tons of fun to catch and there are plenty of them. Panfish are aggressive and populate most lakes and ponds in the United States. They are voracious eaters and have little fear of humans, often swimming right up to the water’s edge. They love to hang around logs, stumps, and tree trunks and they’ll eat nearly anything from worms to crickets to wads of white bread and hunks of American cheese. They’re called panfish because they very obviously fit in a frying pan. All you need to do is buy a basic Zebco rod or a couple of panfish poles, tie on a line, slip on a cork, crimp on a small split shot weight, and tie on a hook. Then take an earthworm or red worm and thread it on, making sure the hook doesn’t show. Move the cork on the line to make sure the bait sits deep enough, but not too deep (the cork will lay over on its side when this happens). Swing the line out near some kind of structure and wait. Panfish will peck at the bait, which will make the cork jump. Stay patient and resist the temptation to yank until the cork goes under and stays. Lift gently and you’ll feel the little rascal wiggle and swim. Once you get the fish on the dock or ground take your thumb and index finger and pinch on the sides of the fish right at those natural dots. The fish will settle and you’ll be able to work the hook out. If the fish is about the size of a man’s hand or larger, then it’s a keeper. Throw it in a water-filled, iced cooler, re-bait, and throw it back out. You may find that fishing is your forte, that you love it, or maybe you’ve loved fishing for years, but remember the goal of this trip is about your kids. You want them to love the outdoors. They will tangle lines, you will tangle lines. They will wrap it in branches and you’ll wonder how the hell it got so messed up (I’ve fished for 30 years I still get some real major tangles). It is normal, especially for kids who’ve never done it. Be patient with their mistakes. Hand them your pole when theirs gets tangled or when they catch a fish and you are pulling it off. It will keep them catching and excited. The most important thing is you don’t want them to think you aren’t enjoying this time or they are disappointing you or they will never want to return. Also, don’t make the mistake of having them toss their bait in the middle of the water where nothing swims while you hit the hot spots either. It is not about you on this trip. Schedule one of those trips another time of the month. This is about them, so as they fish and you feel one on your line, ask them to hold your pole for a second. They’ll get the surprise of their life. Finally, don’t make this fish the only time you hit the outdoors for the year. Schedule a regular time with your kid. We do “Fishing Fridays” in the summer where we try to go at least every other week to a nearby pond or lake. My daughter grabs her pink Barbie fishing rod and reels in those fish as fast as they can get on the line. If you want to teach your kids about life in and among the outdoors, they need to look forward to the classroom. I know I loved going to that school.

The Outdoors… a Classroom, My Dad…the Teacher, and Independence… the Goal: The Lesson Learned on the Log

The boat puddered along the lily pads and I kept watch, steering left, then right, taking extra care not to hit a stump. I didn’t want our fishing excursion interrupted by damage to the boat and especially to the motor. Not to mention, it was my first real opportunity to guide, my first instance of taking folks out on Reelfoot Lake and putting them on good fishing—and I was 15. I had driven boats since I was seven and fishing even before that. I had “guided” my own father for a couple of years while he sat back, relaxed, and let me troll us around and put him on the fish. I had even taken some buddies out, some to fish for the first time, so I was forced to bait their hooks and pull off the bream. I knew the 20 square-mile lake, trolled up and down it for years. I had studied maps constantly and had ventured in and out of its islands, channels, and coves. So, my parents had no problem letting me take the boat out, even by myself. Frankly, I was way more confident on the water than I ever had been on land. Now I was guiding my high school buddy and his dad and they were anxious to get on the fish. I knew of a great spot that I hadn’t fished for a while, but you had to be real careful of the underwater logs and wooden stubs. And I heard the scraping, it started at the bow and worked its way under the center of the hull, I slammed the motor in neutral, and throttled down to guard snapping the propeller. The rubbing stopped but I could tell the front of the boat sat slightly higher in the water. We were on a stub, the top of an underwater tree and the point poked right in the center of the boat, like balancing on a pin. It was frustrating, I had watched so close, been so careful and now we were stuck. I put the motor in reverse and increased the throttle. The motor rolled and water pushed back around us, but the boat didn’t move. I grabbed a long paddle and tried to push off the bottom, but the muck gave way and the paddle sunk, making it impossible to get leverage. There were no cell phones for me to call Dad and have him come help, no satellite signal emergency device I could punch to alert some authority. It was just my 15 year-old-self and my “clients” and I had to figure out something because the boat wasn’t moving. All my life my dad had taught me, through the classroom of the outdoors, how to be independent, how to be calm and handle situations—how to be a man. We spent countless hours in boats, on piers, on deer stands, in the woods, and in duck blinds, and each instance brought with it a lesson or a particular skill that would help me in the future. Those lessons and that time in the outdoors gave me confidence and an ability to just figure things out. He took chances, let me venture on my own quite a bit, and those incidents formed in me an ability to problem-solve, persevere, and lead. The boat wasn’t moving, but I had an idea, I just needed a little leverage and we would slide off. I started the motor again and put it in reverse, then I gave it some throttle. Then, I ran from the back of the boat to the front, causing it to rock. I know I looked foolish, like a pacing tiger, but in a few seconds I could hear the rubbing again and we slid off the wooden trap. I stopped the boat and peered into the water, sure enough, just below the surface, the stub lay. We finally reached our destination and caught a ton. I brought our friend back to the dock and dad had the fryer all ready, the potatoes cut, and the hushpuppies formed and resting. I grabbed a bucket and a couple of knives and cleaned the fish. “Full Service!” Mr. Menietto exclaimed. We fried them up and had an incredible fresh dinner on the deck. Exceptions for the cooking, I handled the entire day and I didn’t even have a driver’s license yet. I led a fishing trip, got stranded, and was resourceful and calm enough to handle the situation. We returned safely and I served up the fish we caught to my friends, about as fresh as you can get it. Through years of being in the outdoors and being placed in situations where I would need to act, my dad had taught me independence, resourcefulness, endurance, and courage. Simply, he taught me to be a man, an adult, and when I married and moved out a few years later, although I was scared to death, I had confidence to handle what life threw at me. And ultimately, that is the “final product” we have to produce as parents—fully functioning adults, people that contribute to society and represent our name with distinction. Nevertheless, as I teach teenagers and observe college kids, I’m not so confident they’re ready. In fact, I’m shaken at their lifestyles. In our city, a place that’s been recognized by national magazines as one of the 10 best places to live in the United States, record numbers of teens and young adults use some form of recreational drug regularly (sometimes together). Kids I’ve talked to say they smoke pot because it helps them deal with the problems and pressures of life. They describe their futures as hopeless and scary and getting high relieves them of the stress. For others, pot is not enough and as I type this, I know of students I’ve taught and coached, who are now hooked on heroine or hallucinating on LSD. It seems much of their life is a fight to escape reality; social media drama and video gaming dominates their existence. They are savants in manipulating images, communicating quickly and in mass numbers, and problem solving on a video screen, and yet, most can’t even change a flat. They want life to be virtual, a controlled version of reality for reality is the monster hiding under their bed, and they keep that monster at bay by either recreating a new world on a screen or being so high they don’t even notice. This set of articles is a cry out to parents, particularly dads. Fathers have a unique power and ability to empower and teach their kids and the outdoors are an incredible classroom for all ages. You just need to get them out there, have an adventure, and see what happens. In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing some ways you can get kids in the outdoors and the powerful lessons they teach. They won’t be “how-to’s” per se, but encouragement and some basics on getting there. I hope you’ll read, enjoy, and feel free to ask questions. I’ll do what I can to answer them, but If I’m not sure what to do, I’ll do what I can to figure it out—because that is how I was raised.

Who is the “Pup Tent Papa” and Why This Blog?

A young man sits in my class trading off dozing with disturbing those around him. He often starts each day, before the official first bell, dragging in just before the ringing and slouching in his desk, finishing his breakfast and poking fun at the surrounding students. The intercom interjects, “Please stand for the pledges!” He continues eating or pestering and I remind him what we are doing. He slowly rises with a smirk, half-heartedly slips his hand somewhere just below his actual heart, and says nothing while the majority of the classroom honors “Old Glory.” Later, as I walk the students through a lesson on reading fiction, the young man shrieks, jumps out of his seat, and runs to the back of the room. I whirl around to regain the class’s attention and I spot the reason for his disturbance: a cricket hopped under his desk. I couldn’t help but shake my head, I had baited thousands of hoppers like it on hooks since I was six. Bluegill fishing in Tennessee demanded boys and girls catch crickets or dig worms, and here I faced a young man (who has no qualms with chiding others on their shortcomings) that fled it like a grizzly. Then, like something you’d read in a children’s book, a sweet and quiet girl asked if she could catch it and take it outside. I nodded my approval. She pushed up her glasses, walked around the desk, and reached down to capture the “monster.” She cupped her hands and headed out my door to release it. The young man sighed his relief, he was saved, and if it were up to me, I would’ve revoked his “pre-man card” immediately. It is for those two scenes that I’ve started this blogsite. Kids can take all manner of selfies and manipulate virtual images, but they can’t bait a hook, set up a tent, or cook a fish over a campfire. College students skip classes for “Grand Theft Auto,” but can’t change a real tire. Time honored traditions and faith seem to be bane of existence and the butt of jokes. And an understanding of what it means to be men, women, boys, and girls has become maddeningly convoluted. So this blog is basically my musings and wisdom I’ve learned from time in the outdoors and from my great teachers. I’m by nature a teacher, storyteller, and “bard of traditional living” so I can’t help but look at life and try to extract some wisdom for navigating it. Much of this blog will be stories and articles about life in the woods and on the water and memories of those who have gone before us, who lived when life wasn’t so “automatic.” It may offend, sound backwards, or even border on Neanderthal, but it’s not malicious. If anything, it’s because I’ve seen great men and women and what passes as that today is far from the adjective. So read, enjoy, think, and share—then get off the computer, get outside, or spend some time at grandma’s talking. Who knows, you just might not only learn something, you might like it. -Scott (Papa Gill)