The Fishing Contest

“The Fishing Contest”

Mom and Dad loved to float fish on Beaver Creek.  For years, we would put in the flat-bottom boats and float from the Job Hole at Old Hilda to Kissee Mills, or from the Narrows at Union Flat to the Job Hole.  As Mom and Dad became older, we switched from flat-bottom boats to canoes and eventually quit floating a long distance, but would continue to take our canoe to McHaffee’s and simply fish the upper and lower holes of water.  In one of our last fishing trips with both Mom and Dad, I had Dad in the front, Mom in the middle, and me in the back paddling the canoe.  On this particular day, the water and light were near perfect even though we had a late start on the trip.  When we launched into the hole, Dad caught a nice goggle-eye on the first cast, then Mom caught a fish, then Dad, then Mom.  Eventually, the score was Dad with 16 fish and Mom with 15 fish.  The shadows continued to deepen on the creek and I knew that we needed to get off the water soon, but I desperately wanted Mom to tie the score.  Earlier, when we arrived, we had seen a cottonmouth snake swimming on top of the water from the bluff toward us.  Dad let out a squall like you would to jump a racoon out of a tree and the cottonmouth turned and quickly slithered across the water and up the bluff.  As I turned the canoe before the shoals to paddle back up the hole of water, the corner of my eye caught some sycamore leaves drifting on top of the water toward the canoe.  But, as the sycamore leaves came out from under the canoe, I realized it wasn’t sycamore leaves at all, but the cottonmouth snake coiled on top of the water and ready to strike.  My mind was racing, I pointed the paddle at the snake trying to squall like Dad to scare the snake away, but all I could get out was “Oooh, oooh, oooh!”  Fortunately, the snake drifted past without striking while Mom and Dad, focused on the fishing contest, continued to cast oblivious to the serpent on the water.  Mom hooked a tiny sunfish off the gravel bar tying the score – Dad with 16 fish, Mom with 16 fish.  I declared the contest a tie and told Dad to put his rod in the boat, which he reluctantly did, not because I asked, but because he knew how much it would please Mom to tie him fishing!