[ecduzitgood]

I remember catching my first bluefish when I was a kid. I don't remember how old I was but it is one of the few things I remember from when I was very young.
My grandfather used to keep his boat in Barnstable marina and my mother used to bring us there during the summer. I was given a dip net that I used to catch shrimp that would hang around the dock floats. I watched these bigger fish swimming around and tried using the net to catch them, but they were too fast. I had seen people using fishing rods but I was too young to touch the rods, so one day I got a deck brush and somehow tied line and a hook to it. I recall it seemed to take forever to figure out how to catch these bigger fish I would see swimming around. I tried everything I could think of for bait, starting with stuff I scrapped off the dock floats. I tried those round water balloon type things that grow on the floats along with candy, gum, etc. I finally got a shrimp in my little dip net and put that on the hook. It worked and I remember the excitement of finally catching these big fish. Well I learned a lesson that has lasted me a lifetime.
That first fish was a snapper bluefish a little bigger than my foot at the time, which seemed like a big fish to me. I don't recall how but it bit my knuckle and I started to bleed. I threw the brush with the fish still attached down and ran crying to my mother, who was on the boat at the next dock over. I told her what happened and after getting my band-aid I took her over to show her. When we got there the snapper was still alive so I immediately started jumping on it. She yelled at me and gave me a spanking and told me it wasn't the fishes fault and sent me back to the boat saying I was grounded. I remember being very confused and doing a lot of crying and finally falling asleep. Next thing I know she wakes me up and gives me my first fishing rod. She showed me how to use it and how to handle fish, I was in heaven. I took that rod and threw it right off the back of the boat on my first cast. She retrieved it with one of the rods onboard, showed me how to cast it again and I thought for sure I had it right. I took the rod and threw it right back overboard. I was having trouble holding the button down on the back of the reel and then releasing it to make a cast. When I finally figured it out I felt like I was the best fisherman in the world.
The next fish that got me in trouble was an eel I caught from a dinghy I borrowed (stole) from the other side of the marina. It was the biggest fish I had ever caught and I didn't think I would land it. When I got it inside the boat I was horrified to see it and when it came towards me I jumped overboard and swam to the dock leaving the dinghy adrift. I forgot my fishing rod still attached to the eel in the dinghy and ran back to my grandfathers boat. They noticed I was wet and my fishing rod was missing. I wouldn't tell them what happed and was spanked and grounded again. The real trouble came shortly after when someone retrieved the drifting dinghy with my rod and the eel still inside. My mom took my rod away for the rest of the summer and I wasn't allowed off the boat, it was like the end world.