I haven't gone fishing in years, but the bug has not gone away. I hear it calling me back. Right now my brother is fishing enough to make up for me. My father likes to say if it were possible to drop a hook in a toilet and pull out a fish, my brother would have done it by now.

The fishing sickness that my family does not deny comes from both sides of the family. Mom and Dad used to fish all the time, and Mom trained us how to fish, too. Now that she's older, she hasn't gone fishing in a long time. When you say fishing, she gets such a wistful look on her face. When my brother catches enough fish to give some away, he'll take her some fish and clean it for her. I have seen more than one time when my brother and father would come home late from fishing and she would get up out of a deep sleep and gladly fry a few pieces of fish. I mean, it just couldn't wait until tomorrow. My Mom is usually up at 5 am.

My brother took my Uncle some fish that he caught and cleaned and you think he would have brought him a bag of gold. Half of the fish never made it to the freezer. My Uncle called my Mom and he was like, "That boy of yours is all right with me!"

I called my uncle one day when I knew that my Mom had just got some fish, and I knew he had some, too. We talked for about 30 minutes and during the conversation he said, "Boy a fish sure is in a bad way (in a lot of trouble) when it gets in you Mom's hands!" He laughed so hard! Then he said, "Well I gotta go. Gotta go clean these fish." It was my turn to laugh. Who could he talk about?

My brother spends every weekend he can fishing. He taught his last girl friend how to fish. She dumped him and kept all the equipment he bought for her. The kicker is that maybe a year or so later, he saw her fishing with the same tackle box and poles. He was with the Uncle that he gave the fish too. My brother told my Uncle who she was and how she got her fishing equipment. My brother wasn't upset, he was more shocked than anything and he warned her about going out fishing alone. My Uncle said the he would have knocked over all of her fishing stuff.

My brother used to work at a sporting goods store. I used to work retail, and I used to preach to him that you should wait for clearance sales. He has finally listened to his older sister. He would come home with marked down reels and rods and act like paying for them was an honor he didn't deserve. I call him THE FISHINATOR (like terminator, but fish). I told him that I am going to put that on a T shirt and give it to him. THE FISHINATOR 2000.

My nephew just made a birthday and The Fishinator bought him his first fishing pole and tackle box! You should have seen the look on his face! He was so happy. He couldn't get the line to come out and he didn't have the right words to say what he wanted, so he looked at me and said, "How do you turn it on?" I laughed so loud and so hard. After I started laughing, he found the right words. One of my co-workers told me that I should have told my nephew that it needed batteries!

My brother took him out to the back yard and showed him how to throw it to make the line come out. It about 20 minutes, my nephew was an old pro. Yep, Fishinator, Jr.

At our last family reunion, there was a small pond where you could fish. My nephew bought his new fishing pole (of course). I was carrying it so he wouldn't break it. One of our cousins was looking at it too hard and my nephew (who is 6) turns around and looks at him and says "Hey dude, that's my pole." I wanted to laugh, but he was too serious.

My brother said that later, one of our cousins asked him if he could use his fishing pole. My nephew said, "Well,...... Okay...but don't tear it up like you did my uncle's pole, 'cause my Uncle bought me this pole." For the record, the other boy didn't tear it up, he just tangled it up. My brother said they got a few nibbles, but didn't catch anything. I wish they had. I stood there a long time and watched them fish together. It was a great family moment.

Later, when we got home, Mom couldn't find my nephew's fishing pole and she asked me about it. She did find it the next day. Before she found it, she told me not to say anything and that if we had lost it, my brother had to go back to the store and find him one that looked just like the one that was lost because, "My Uncle bought me that pole!"

I do plan to get back to fishing, I hear it calling me. I see it going forward in the future of my family. I sure would hate not having my own funny stories to add to the Family Fishing Line. I have just got to come up with a funny name for myself! Sister of Fishinator just doesn't cut it. How about FISHINISTA!? I'll have to check and see if that one is taken!

When I am not wishing that I am fishing, it is usually because I am sewing. I make modern and vintage pillowcase dresses. You can see my web store by going to JennifersJumpers(dot)com. Maybe I can even make your little Fishinista a fish dress (I promise that it will be cute and pink)!

NOTE: I just got a new camera. My last one died and I couldn't add any pictures to my Pictures of South Louisiana Hub. I should be adding new pictures to it soon (hopefully they will include some fish).