I remember when I was eight. My father had brought me to a place we liked to call “Fish Camp” which was just a name for the absurd amount of fishing we would do every day. The drive up there was all but boring. We could see raging waters flowing right by us, and the beautiful dark green of the mountains with their contrast to the light blue sky. We had arrived, and while my father was setting up camp and arranging the kitchen. My grandfather and I went out and he taught me how to cast. I never really understood waiting while fishing because we had caught a couple small ones in a matter of minutes and left for dinner. For dinner, we had perfectly grilled ribs; we cracked a few jokes and started kicking up the fire. We talked some more and had some s’mores, felt the heat of the blazing fire on our feet and headed off for our tents with the soft cricket and buzzing of little incest nearby.

The next Day we went to Moose Creek which it where you go if you like catching enormous fish. My father and I went down the shallow slope off the dirt road and walked out into the frigid water. He then grabbed my shoulders and said to me.

“Fishing is slow, but if you wait, you will be rewarded”

Therefore, being who I was, I thought it was like candy but something hit me and I was laser focused. I felt the water slowly gushing onto my leg, the soft breeze in my hair, and the gentle tap of the scorching sun. BAM, it hit. A little splash by the tip of my line and my dad started yelling to pull the slack and reel it in. Before it came in everyone was worried my rod would snap because it was bent so much, and seeing the paint stretch itself into a much lighter shade of the deep red it was. I finally got it out. It was a very large fish, as it held up to the moose creek standards, but it was hard for me to pull that fish in. Only because it was my first fish camp and I still had a lot to learn about fishing.

After around ten minutes, the fish tired out and I got him in my net.

Oh my. It was beautiful, it was shiny as gold with a full rainbow reflecting of the sun’s gentle tap, it seemed as if this single fish was kissed by god. I felt so happy, filled with joy and pride to show my father what I had just pulled out of that little area.

That is when I realized what my father meant when he said, “you would be rewarded.” Especially cause without knowing I waited staring at the fly focused as a laser for almost an hour without knowing. Even though I had caught a couple more, it was time to head back to camp and re do it all tomorrow, in the morning.