The Head

by Jon

Once upon a time, (six years ago) I was looking at the comics in the newspaper when I found a colorful ad for free fishing! After a ton of bugging Mom and Dad (and a ton of cleaning my room because it was a mess), Dad took me to get supplies for fishing. I got some Powerbait, worms, lures, hooks, sinkers and salmon eggs which cost a lot. Then, Mom and Dad inspected our fishing poles. I took my lucky neon green one that was new and had one hundred yards of twine in it.

After we got the fishing supplies checked and in the car, Dad, Mom, Ben and I went to the fishing place. Dad showed me how to bait a hook and put on a sinker. Then he showed me how to cast. The first cast Dad made was so far out, I thought that the sinkers and stuff weren’t coming back! The next time he cast, he got the line caught in some weed and we lost my sinker and lure. After a while I got used to casting. Within my second good cast I caught a "fish", which turned out to be a shoe. It felt like a fish because of all the squirming. Either there was a fish inside or the holes in it made the water go in at such an angle, the shoe moved back and forth in the water. In my struggle to get the "fish" I knocked the whole bucket of worms into the water. I scrambled on my hands and knees to retrieve the worms, but they had already sunk so far away that they were impossible to reach. I thought that I ought to not tell dad because it was one hundred and twenty five worms I had lost so I thought he would be upset.

Then I put on a TON of Powerbait (which felt like flour mixed with paste and sand and smelled like a rotting piece of cheese) onto my tri hook. I put on my two of my heaviest sinkers and cast about halfway across the small lake. After about two minutes, I felt a hard tug on my line, which almost made me fall into the water. I pulled, screamed, yelled, jumped, and tugged on my pole when I saw a fish on my hook fly out of the water and into the air. This fish was huge! This fish was at least four and a half feet long and I yelled "holy crickey! This is one big hummer!"

As the fish landed in the water, I gave an almighty wrench to the line and the fish’s head flew off with a "SPROING" and right at me as the tension on my line was released! Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that I only caught a fish head but instead I thought that the fish had come right out of the water. I screamed as I flew backwards. I landed flat on my back and I cried out for Mom or Dad.

After they came over, they helped me up and I practically screamed," DAD! MOM! Did you see that fish? It’s huge! It must’ve weighed fifty pounds!"

" What was all of this screaming about? Are you okay? What is it? What happened?" they both asked at once.

" This fish! The fish! It was big. Did you see it?" I questioned hopefully.

"Whoa, hold it a minute," Dad said, "what was all that screaming about?"

At this point I stopped jumping up and down and said, "you didn’t see the fish?"

"What fish," she looked at my pole and line, then Mom said, pointing at the head which had dirt all over it and was hanging limply from my pole. "Ewwwwww... what’s that?"

"Oh my," I said, " I didn’t realize that I had only caught a head."

" What is it?" Dad inquired suspiciously.

"My catch of the year," I responded, sort of laughing and sort of gagging.

"Oh my," Mom responded, " That’s yucky."

That night, I cooked the bony fish head in oregano, onions, and basil leaves. It was actually pretty good. The next day I told anyone and everyone about my fishing experience. A lot of boys said, "cool," and most of the girls ran away because it was so disgusting. I had fun that day and I will always remember that fishing trip.