Gone fishin'

I've gone fishing a few times in my life, but those times were long, long ago (in a very innocent and idyllic youth). The truth is, however, that I look quite fondly upon the times I remember fishing, so I was excited to have the opportunity to do it again last week. Luke and Graham, two young men from Canada who recently arrived as returning long-term missionaries with Flying Mission, are avid fishermen and invited me on a trip to Mafikeng, just across the South African border. We decided to make a day of it, and although it was already lunch time by the time we got to the dam where we were fishing, we got quite a few hours of fishing in. We caught a few fish here and there, all of them largemouth bass. The fishing was a bit slow most of the time, but the best part of the day for me was just getting away from the house and the airport and spending time outdoors under the sun around a pretty lake. Most of the fish we caught were too small to keep and we had to throw them back. Actually, to be honest, I was having quite bad luck with the fishing, and hadn't had more than a few serious nibbles on my line all day. We were just getting ready to pack it in so we could make the drive back in daylight (roads here are dangerous at night, what with all the cows and goats and such wandering around), and decided to take a few more casts. Graham, who had stopped fishing already, was watching and told me it was now or never...we needed a fish big enough for dinner. Well, it just so happened that right about then there was an obliging decent-sized bass that decided to go for my bait, and after a short struggle when he got tied up in a fence a few feet offshore, we had dinner. So we packed him in, headed home, and fried the tasty little guy up. He went down real nice with some tartar sauce and chips on the side.