Sam has a passion for fishing. I was thinking about that while a local official was asking me questions about where and how Sam fishes. He oughta know that I can”t tell him anything. It tickles me to hear Sam on the river and a fisherman idles up beside us.
“You catching any?”
“A few,” says Sam.
“Whatcha catchin” ”em on?”
“A little this and that.”
I had to practically sign a pre-nup that I wouldn”t tell anybody where Sam fishes and what Sam fishes with. I thought about that as the official said, “Where does Sam fish?”
“Some creeks off the river.”
“Where”s he put in?”
“Back of a neighbor”s house.”
Finally the official must have figured he was talking to some dumb woman that didn”t know anything about fishing ”cause he gave up. Then he huffed and said, “Two biggest liars in the world are fishermen and turkey hunters.”
I continued talking, explaining Sam”s passion for fishing. Sam had recently described going to Grey Honnell”s bait shop across from the Columbus courthouse, where Zachary”s is now, when he was just a little kid. All he wanted to do was look at the bait. To him watching minnows was better than Disney World. I guess the river being so close to Columbus, it wouldn”t be strange having a bait shop right downtown across from the courthouse.
Sam grew up fishing the rivers and creeks with his dad. He always wondered if any water hole might have a fish in it. When he was real little, after a big rain he”d go check the water puddles and the ditches. He”d have a stick with a string tied on it and a fly for bait; he”d drop it in the puddle to see if there might be a fish; just seeing if something might grab on to the fly.
I told the official about fishing with Sam on the creeks. I like it for a little while, then I get hung up a few times or I get hot or hungry and start reading a book or taking nature pictures or, OK, sometimes I turn the camera on myself and play “Glamour Shots” a la Tibbee Creek. Sam never gets tired, and he never quits ”til dark.
“One more hole,” usually means about four more holes. The next one is always going to be the good one, the mother lode. It”s like a game of wits, Sam against the fish. He wants to know the fish, how they move, what they think, what they eat, what”s their habitat — how can he out-smart them. He won”t give up.
The official said, “Yeah, I”m not like that. If I”m not catching any, I think about what else I could be doing and quit.”
“You see, I can”t tell you anything about Sam”s fishing, especially ”cause you have a boat. That”s just one of the rules.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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