I grabbed onto the eight foot long pole and let the end dig into my side. I forgot about the pain, to focused on making my dad proud. I turned the reel around and around till my arm started to get numb, just when I thought I might let go, the rod grew heavy like trying to lift someone the same size as me, wiggling as hard as he could. My nine year old arms almost couldn't handle the strain.

It happened like it would to any son of a fisher fanatic. I mean I love to go fishing. Sitting in the front of a boat feeling the cold wind whip through my hair, while the boat takes each punch from a wave, and the sun burning on my face, intensified by the reflection from the water. And every few seconds a wave reaches out a hand and slaps me in the face getting me soaked. The only problem is waking up so early! It was probably a quarter before five when my dad banged on my bedroom door and yelled, “Wake up Josh, we’re going fishin’!”

I sluggishly threw on some clothes, while I heard Dad yelling at Jake, my brother, to wake up. I ran upstairs struggling to put on a shirt. My dad came down the hall caring our gear and wearing his green fishing hat. Even though it was incredibly early he looked pumped. It was as if I was the old man struggling to wake and he was the nine year old boy bursting with energy. Behind me I heard the cacophony of the steps, my dad yelled to my brother, “Hurry up Jake! The fish wait for no one!”

Dad stuck the buckets with all of our gear in the car, which surprised me because we need the truck to haul the boat. Right when I was about to ask, what’s going on? Dad said, “We’re not taking our boat today boys. This time we’re riding with one of my friends.”

The drive didn’t actually take too long, but with all the excitement smashed up inside me it felt like forever. I also felt extremely tired,so I shut my eyes for a minute.

“GRRUGGrrrr,” My eyes snapped open and focused on the big door rising to the ceiling revealing the biggest boat I'd ever seen. A man was walking around putting buckets inside the boat. I figured he must be the friend Dad was talking about.

Once we unloaded all our gear into his truck, Dad’s friend backed it up and hooked up the boat. We piled into the truck and I drowsed off again....The next thing I knew we were backing into a lake with no end. I stared through the back window into the vast blue with no tree line that I could see. I got out of the truck to see if I could help with anything, but the boat and truck was different than what I was used to. Instead I waited on the pier. Once the boat was in the water I jumped in, Dad and Jake were already waiting inside, and Dad’s friend had to park the truck so he got in last.

“BROOMMM,” the engine screamed. The engine was twice as big and loud than the one Jake, Dad, and I used. Oh, and five times as fast! I grabbed onto my seat afraid I might blow away. It only took about a minute to get to wherever we were going, but anywhere I looked was blue, an endless blue that seemed to stretch on forever. A strange feeling I hadn’t felt before started to build inside my stomach, I glanced over at Dad and the look he gave me made that feeling disappear in an instant, and a smile snuck it’s way onto my face.

“Let’s get started,” said an unfamiliar voice. I’d forgotten it wasn’t just Jake, Dad, and me. I liked it better that way. But my dad wanted to fish with him, so I had to too.

Dad’s friend set up 8ft long rods, each in their own holder. I wasn’t sure what type of fishing this was. I started wondering how we were going to catch a fish without holding onto the rod. It was a while before anything started to happen, but out of nowhere, Dad’s friend yelled, “We got one!”

He ran over to a rod grabbed it out of the holder and y-a-n-k-e-d!, “The hook’s set, you want this one Joe?” Dad’s friend asked. (Joe’s my dad by the way.)

“Yay. Sure.”

Dad took the rod, and sat in the chair closest to it. He put the butt of the rod into his gut, held it high and, started to real. In no time at all Dad pulled in a huge fish. He set it in the boat, it looked pretty nice, except for the giant black worm sticking out of its side! “Hey, it gots a leech,” Dad said.

“Kill it.” Dad’s friend said nonchalantly

Dad grabbed some pliers put them around the leech, and squeezed. It was quite disgusting.

It was too long until we got another bite. When we did Dad’s friend striked it, that’s what you call setting the hook. Jake looked nervous, neither of us went fishing like this before. He must’ve watched dad with eyes like an eagle’s because he did it just like him. It took a little longer than dad’s fish, but when it fell into the boat you could see the adrenaline and excitement in his face. I couldn't wait to feel that.

It felt as if it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r! Anticipation crawling under my skin like spiders trapped, and trying to burst out, and then I heard his voice, “I think we got another!” Dad’s friend said.

He striked the fish and dad motioned me to come over. “Okay, Josh. Sit in the seat and put the end of the rod into your gut.” And I did exactly that. I plopped myself in the seat and Dad’s friend handed me the rod. I burrowed the end in my gut and started to reel. “Ha! This isn't so hard.” I thought to myself. Then BAM! My arms instinctively tightened and I pushed it harder into my stomach. I realized the fish was probably just resting. I hanged on to the rod, reeling every few second. The closer I got the fish to me, the more strain it put on my arms. For a minute I thought my arms would just give out. I quickly threw out that thought and focused on what I was doing. My rod started to grow heavy. Dad’s friend bent over the boat and pulled up the biggest, seventeen pound fish I ever saw.

“Wow, I think Josh has us beat,” my dad said with a smile. I stared at the fish, and a smile spread onto my face. Just a minute ago this fish was giving me the most trouble in my life, now it was giving me the greatest feeling in the world, satisfaction.