Fish Story

A few years ago I saw a Meg Ryan movie, "City of Angels" that got me thinking. How many of you have ever done something with a pre-ordained outcome or expected results, only to be pleasantly surprised by an unexpected turn of events? My wife and I went to see the movie when it came out, expecting just any other movie. But when it was over it had succeeded in reminding us of the best times of our lives. She was reminded of the beginning of our life together and I was reminded of the best day that I ever spent fishing. The difference between women and men, I guess. There is a scene in the movie that was filmed at my favorite fishing hole.

When I was living and working in Lake Tahoe, wondering what to do with the rest of my life, I had this friend who was kind of a mentor to me. He was a little bit older than myself but we seemed to click because we had the same interests. We both liked to fish and drink. And when we didn't have the money or time to fish or drink, we would dream of writing the great American novel.

We were roommates and both worked at the same place but on different shifts. As often as we could we would go fishing on our days off. Fishing was usually limited to a half day because one of us either had just gotten off work or had to go to work later. I remember one particular day. My roommate and I had decided to go fishing early one morning. I got the thermos and filled it with a half a bottle of brandy and then topped it off with coffee. And we always have tuna fish sandwiches to show the fish who was more powerful. That would last us the morning. We had chosen a spot to go for no real reason. We had gone there before. I don't remember if we caught a fish there before or if we even had a bite but we figured "what the heck". We had seen people fishing there and it looked like a good spot.

We got there just as the sun was coming up. It was going to be a beautiful day. The sky was dotted with white puffy clouds and the wind was pushing those out over the desert as it brought new ones in from the west. We had our sandwiches and our spiked coffee. It was a perfect day. We just sat and talked the whole morning. Hours went by and we hadn't had so much as a nibble. But we didn't mind.

Finally, about noon, we decided that we should only stay about another half-hour because my roommate had to go to work. This begins the greatest half-hour I had ever spent fishing in my entire life. At about 12:10, I caught a fish. It was a beautiful rainbow trout. About 12 inches long. It was a good size fish, just right for the frying pan. We both went through our ritual of de-hooking the fish and handling it to get the fish flavor on our hands. We never showered on days we went fishing. You want to be sure that you kept all aromas natural. None of that soapy smell. The fish could detect that and wouldn't take the salmon eggs we were using for bait. Whenever we start fishing we make sure that we limit the man-made smells. We rub the bait on our hands before we bait the hook.

I proceeded to re-bait my line and set it in the water. At about 12:15, my roommate caught a fish. Then I caught another one about ten seconds later. We were pretty excited now. We quickly took our fish off our hooks and re-baited. As soon as we had re-cast our lines, we were catching fish all over again. Reel 'em in and re-bait, re-cast and reel 'em in again. The limit for Rainbow Trout in the Sierras was five per fisherman. In twenty minutes we had caught our limit. It was an amazing experience. One that I will always remember. We were laughing all the way back to the car. It was one of those life experiences that stick with someone till the day they die.

We have tried to duplicate the experience on numerous occasions, but that was a magical day and that it shall stay. I remember the lake. It is one of the smaller lakes next to Lake Tahoe. I was reminded of it then when I saw that movie. This lady in the movie had a troubled time in her life and escaped to Tahoe to work through it. She awoke one morning in a cabin overlooking my lake. It sent a warmth through my body because it holds such magic for me.

In closing I would like to say to you all, cherish those magical moments. Those moments that are set up to accomplish one thing yet have a completely unexpected result. Those moments are gifts. Those moments are special. We would often go fishing just to sit out in the sun and relax. We would have gone fishing just to sit by a lake and ponder all of life's mysteries. It wasn't important whether we caught anything or not. That is what fishing means to me. Fishing is not an action but a state of mind. The metaphor, fishing for the meaning of life.