No Snow Cones in Fishing
When my son’s little league baseball game was finally over the other night, he asked if he could stay and watch a bit of the next game. When I explained our loitering to the Stillwater Parks and Recreation supervisor, he smiled and said, “No better place for a kid to be.”
I smiled, but couldn’t resist. “Well, we could be fishing.”
He paused. “Hmmm. Fishing is pretty good too,” he had to admit.
It got me thinking about some of the similarities between the two sports, and perhaps why, after an extended layoff due to weather cancellations, the team played like they maybe had their minds elsewhere.
For example, our games seem to be scheduled during that magical last hour of sunset when the topwater action – which means casting a floating lure to imitate a frog, grasshopper, or wounded bait fish – can be furious.
Both require a great deal of patience. You spend a lot of time waiting, but then you had better be ready when the action comes your way.
In both fishing and baseball there is “pitching,” while trying to get a “strike” over a plate… which is about the size of a big lily pad.
In fact, the other teams’ sidearm pitcher threw like he was trying to skip a jig under a dock.
Whether one “whiffs” a fastball or a hookset on a big fish, one often witnesses palpable frustration.
When multiple species are caught in some waters, it is said to be a “grand slam.”
And when I interviewed angler and television host Mark Zona of “Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show” about his term “chunker,” he said it meant, “A base hit. Not out of the park.”
I’m sure there are others… Would love to hear ‘em.
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Andy Whitcomb
Andy is an outdoor writer (http://www.justkeepreeling.com/) and stressed-out Dad has contributed over 380 blogs to takemefishing.org since 2011. Born in Florida, but raised on banks of Oklahoma farm ponds, he now chases pike, smallmouth bass, and steelhead in Pennsylvania. After earning a B.S. in Zoology from OSU, he worked in fish hatcheries and as a fisheries research technician at OSU, Iowa State, and Michigan State.