Page 45 - Demo

Hf***m**mi%u00bb4*%u00bbm0 h k , j t t , S i k h * n c | / U f %u00bb c > i o* i ' i u 'i > C ' V i r i / n f f I %u00ab U n M W*2*% M*%u00bbS%u00ab*mjnrm 1/ f u u i i ji %u00bbo r%u00ab%u00bb%u00abf*%u00abf%u00abOne Fish Story You Can BelieveBY JEANETTE E. WALLSI always considered fishing to be a fairly basic sport: one takes the prepared line from a friend and waits. If and when there is a tug on the other end of the line, one simply makes a fuss and a considerate companion takes the pole and brings the fish in. Then you get the praise and the snapshot of you and your catch. An enjoyable sport which consists mostly of relaxing in a boat or on the shore and listening to others%u2019 very exaggerated talk of previous fishing expeditions.So when the State Parks and Recreation Department stocked Prospect Park Lakewith some 1500 fish (catfish, mostly bullhead, some carp) and I was told to go down and %u201ccheck out%u201d the fishing in the area, I thought that the most difficult part of the whole thing would be the logistics of bringing home a couple dozen fish on the subway.The first step%u2014and the smoothest going of what turned into a whole rigamarole%u2014 was buying the fishing license. I vaguely imagined the department making me take a fishing test (somewhat in the same way that a driving test is needed to qualify for a driving license) and then being fingerprinted, etc. The procedure was disappointingly unbureaucratic. A mere $6.25 will buy it%u2014I took said amount in hand and went to a local sporting goods store with two pieces of identification and got one. My disappointment at the simplicity of this was quickly mollified by the realization that I was actually a legal fisherman (fisherwoman?%u2014fisherperson?) and well on my way to landing this season's record catch.There was, however, one important component still missing%u2014a fishing pole%u2014 an integral part of fishing, unless...shuddering, I ignored the image of myself bending over the water with a strung Coke can. Everyone seems to have a fishing pole, but they%u2019re wihtout reel, or are %u201c at our summer home, upstate,%u2019%u2019 or are deep-sea poles. (%u201c Are you crazy? I%u2019m not gonna let you take that gorgeous pole anywhere!%u201d )MADE BY MATELAfter several hours of phone calls and having my sportsmanship, as well as dexterity, insulted. I tracked down a pole which%u2014though I wasn%u2019t aware of it at the time%u2014could have been manufactured by Matel. I wished bitterly, to no avail, that I had one of those white fisherman%u2019s hats, appropriately squashed and ornamented with fishing hooks and lures (the sportsman%u2019s answer to a Christmas tree).Sunday threatened rain, but I dressed asM y mistake was probably buyingcooked sardin es.every timeI tried to slip a pieceonto the hook it would crumble off.%u201c summery%u201d as my wardrobe allows, though I did take precautions. (I must admit that I felt rather foolish riding the subways with a fishing pole and an umbrella.) Prospect Park Lake, reflecting the overcast sky, looked like liquid steel that Sunday, and most of the crowds that usually swarm the lake were scared off by the bleak sky.You can rent a boat for only $1 an hour at the old skating rink, but no one was on the water, so I decided to plop myself down at a likely looking spot on shore and start hauling them in. Now, I%u2019m not qualified to give fishing lessons by any means, but hindsight allows me to drop a few %u201c don%u2019ts%u201d that I picked up through experience on this escapade.NO SARDINESLesson #1: Sardines make lousy bait. I don%u2019t know where I picked up this information, but somewhere I%u2019d heard that sardines are an ideal bait and that fish zero in on them like flies on honey. Maybe they do, I don%u2019t know. I couldn%u2019t keep the darn stuff on the hook long enough to tell. My mistake was probably buying cooked sardines, though I didn%u2019t even consider thedifference between raw and cooked, and everytime I tried to slip a piece onto the hook it would crumble off.Eventually, I managed to balance a piece on the tip of the hook so, and, trying to convince myself that it wouldn%u2019t come off during the cast, 1 seated myself. Here is the most lengthy part of fishing, and unless you%u2019re a loner, which I most definitely am not, this part of fishing should be carried through with a companion. So, after 15 minutes of contemplating the handle of my fishing pole, I decided that this was ridiculous and as long as I was here I might as well bait my pole.Gently tugging at the line, I found it resisted. I could imagine an intelligent bullhead holding the line just tight enough for me not to notice a pull. With a mighty pull the line gave and the end went flying over my head with something attached to the end. It vaguely appeared to be in the shape of a fish%u2014but it wasn%u2019t struggling enough.I groped for it wildly, but the line was very skilled in avoiding me, and flew around my head several times, encircling me with nylon thread and leaving my bound and helpless with my %u201c catch%u201d(Photos by Michael Cuiccio)Catching, casting and%u2014cutting?Three fishermen and three ways offishing in Prospect Park.resting mockingly on my chest. Sardines are very effective in catching seaweedcovered mud.CONSULT THE EXPERTSExasperated with my failure, I decided it was time to consult an expert. Some pre-teen boys had been fishing near me, pretending not to notice my escapades. They%u2019d pulled in a total of four fish and hadn%u2019t been here much longer than I had. %u201c Uh...Hi...%u201d I sheepishly introduced myself and explained my situation. They inspected my gear, making serious comments to each other about my inadequacy and explaining to me, in technical detail, what I had done wrong.For starters, they suggested that I adjust my float and remove my weight altogether. (%u201cThis is much too heavy,%u201d said the older one, about 12.) %u201c What are you using for bait? Sardines? No, they won%u2019t do; try using worms instead. No, we don%u2019t have any extra. You%u2019ll have to dig some up.%u201d Then they said something about the wind blowing in the wrong direction to be fishing here (I still don%u2019t believe that one) and left.Digging up the worms wasn%u2019t nearly as bad as dealing with them. Nightcrawlers, as they%u2019re called, are brownish-pink things, and deserve every bit of the reputation they have for sliminess. What%u2019s more, they stretch. They don%u2019t particularly enjoy being taken from their nice brown soil homes, and resist by clinging to the dirt. It%u2019s incredible how much the things can stretch before they finally come out or break (an unattractive thought and sight). And they definitely don%u2019t like being put onto hooks. They tend to wriggle to avoid it and it makes it quite difficult to use them as bait.I thought I%u2019d sneak up on one and bring the hook down really quickly. It moved and I ended up hooking my thumb more than the worm. When the poor thing was finally secure on the hook, I made a mighty cast of all of two yards (weights make the line go much further) and waited.Nothing ever really happened, but I didn%u2019t really mind, in part because the rain never came and I wouldn%u2019t have really known what to do with a fish if I caught it, other than throw it back into the water. Of course, if I%u2019d caught a few, it would have made a better story. But the trip home was rather nice. Everyone kept asking how the fishing was, and I had plenty of time on the subway to think about what to tell people about %u201c the one that got away.%u201dJuly 20,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 13