Away from Shore

Some people will do anything to catch a fish.

That was the thought going through my mind as I watched a teenage boy push a kayak into the surf and paddle some two hundred yards off shore.

As the boy paddled, the fishing reel on the pole his father was holding buzzed like a fifty pound mosquito as the line spun out. The father was standing on the beach and the business end of the fishing line was attached to the kayak.

When the kayaking boy was far enough from shore to worry about small pleasure craft traffic, he looked over his shoulder and got the okay from his dad to drop the hook and weight into the water.

I smirked, gave a gentle shake of my head, and returned to my book. There was no real fishing going on - or should I say no catching going on. At this time of year the fish tend to stay quite a way off shore where the water is cooler.

While the father / son approach was a unique way to get a fishing line out beyond the warm water near shore, I questioned the effort.

Forty minutes later I was neither smirking nor questioning when the father reeled an eight foot shark onto the beach.