Gone Fishin’

It was likely because I am still spending a fair amount of time coughing during the night, but this morning I slept until my 5:30 am alarm, which is unusual.  Even more unusual is that the next time I woke up it was 6:00 am.  Normally this motivates me to kick it into overdrive to catch up, make up the time, but this morning I decided I didn’t care, I would have a leisurely morning and get to work when I was ready.

When I got in the car I was only about fifteen minutes behind schedule, not bad!  Heading west toward the office I noticed that there were a bunch of people fishing in the lake.  Maybe that’s not all that unusual, but it’s the middle of the week and most people are at work or at school.  For reasons I still can’t explain, I turned my car around, drove back to the little turnaround at the top of the lake and got out of my car to take some pictures.

Sunrise Over the Lake

Sunrise over Percy Priest Lake

An overwhelming urge to skip work altogether and stay and watch people fishing came over me while I snapped a few pictures.  In the distance I could see two men fishing with their boys.  How fun would it be to hang out and learn to fish on a beautiful, sunny and warm March day?! 

Fathers and Sons 2

Fathers and Sons Fishing

Guys dressed in waders carrying tackle boxes filled with gear gave me the eye – no doubt wondering why I was there when I clearly wasn’t dressed for fishing.  Each one received a smile and a “Good Morning!” as I took my little stroll.  Most were too surprised to respond, at least that’s what I told myself. 

 Those Aren't Waders

These are not waders . . . 

Reason returned and I got back into my car and headed to work, now much more than fifteen minutes behind schedule.  Lest you think I shorted the company and didn’t give my full day’s work, you should know that I typically arrive at work forty-five to sixty minutes earlier than my scheduled start time.  Dedicated sounds better than workaholic, right?  Because in that case, I’m just dedicated.

All day long the images from the morning kept returning to me.  Heading east this time, I stopped back at the turnaround to see what was happening.  There were even more people fishing in the water this time – and when I say in the water, I mean literally waist deep in the water.  Wondering about the water temperature, I called the Fishing Information Line and Ranger Ben told me it was a balmy fifty-nine degrees.

Afternoon Fishermen

Fishermen in every size, shape, and color!

Apparently there are all kinds of bass in the lake, your striped bass, your large and small mouth bass, your white bass, and your Cherokee bass. There’s also sunfish, catfish, crappie, blue gill, and trout.  The size limit on all the bass is fifteen inches, which is a pretty good sized fish!  No one I saw had anything that big, but with that many people fishing they must be out there!

Fishing has never been my thing, I have no plans to ever go fishing, nor gear with which to fish, which makes me wonder why it looked so appealing today.  Maybe it was the warm spring morning, the bright sunshine, or just a temporary lapse of sanity, but for most of the day, I wished I’d been fishin’ instead of working. 

What about you?  What appeals to you about fishing?

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