When you’ve been married for over 30 years, we’re celebrating 35 this year, there are bound to be a few stories to tell.
Experiences that leave you shaken, grateful, inspired, motivated, and deliriously happy.
And then there are those experiences that make friends and family beg you to write and share because they’re amazing, funny, hair-raising, and more.
This is one of those stories. It is a story about fishing…about communication…about relationships.
He loves to fish. He wants me to love to fish.
He taught me how to fish for bass. And, in this story, he wants to teach me how to fish for bluegill and sunfish.
I’ve titled it…
Hooked on Love (and Laughter)
“Hey, I’ve got the fishing gear ready, you done?” Rick hollered from the edge of the water as he finished putting the fishing gear in the boat.
I wiped my hands on my jeans as I tamped out the campfire we had used to cook breakfast. The lingering smell of bacon and wood smoke would soon be gone so I enjoyed a final sniff of the goodness.
We were tent camping at West Boggs Lake, a beautiful small lake in southern Indiana. Our setup was on a point, not quite a peninsula, and a favorite spot for many who came here to enjoy the lake.
“I’m done!” I declared as I walked to the water’s edge and then carefully stepped into the boat, taking my seat in front. It was a ‘v' bottom aluminum fishing boat, and the seat was raised. I admit that at first it felt strange to be sitting a few feet above the water. I was getting used to it, though, as this was our fourth time using it.
He pushed us out from the bank and started the trolling motor. We slowly moved out to the main body of water. It was early enough that a light mist still covered the lake and I could see the silhouettes of people fishing from their small boats and a few from the bank.
“Oh man, today is perfect for fishing!” he said, in a low voice, “you know they bite better when it’s overcast. I hope you like this cove I found because the last time I was here it was packed with bluegill.”
I smiled at his excitement as he talked about how fun it was to fish here, that we were sure to catch a mess of fish. I breathed in the cool air and enjoyed the feeling of peace and calm that came with being surrounded by water and trees. The only sounds were the low hum of the trolling motor and his low voice, as he talked about live bait, how many fish he had caught last week, the honey hole he had found.
Just a few minutes later and we were at the entrance to this fabulous cove. It was almost blocked by fallen trees and gray dead tree limbs, but he maneuvered us around them and kept the boat really close to the bank. So close I was ducking and dodging leaf-covered tree limbs, holding tight to the sides of the seat cushion so I wouldn’t get knocked over.
A moment later we rounded the bend and the cove opened up. To our right was an area filled with dead trees, about 10’ out from the bank, a lot of random gray limbs and trunks sticking up. This is what he says is the best environment for bluegill and sunfish.
He slowly moved us to one of the gray tree trunks. To me they looked like standing driftwood…gray, dry, dead. I sat and watched with admiration as he tied off the back of the boat to a gray trunk that rose about 6’ past the water’s surface, then duck walked past me so he could tie off the front of the boat to the top limb of a tree I could barely see below the water’s surface.
He handed me a fishing pole. As he was telling me, again, how to fish with a bobber, he baited my hook and then said, “Okay, you’re set! Now cast toward the bank and on the other side of those dead trees.”
I was careful to not cast too hard. I didn’t want to catch a tree limb. And, I was so pleased with myself. I did it just right. That baited hook landed a few feet from the bank and began to sink.
The round, red and white bobber sat on the water surface and I focused all of my attention on it.
If it moved, I was going to know it.
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“Damn, Charlene! You didn't have to rip the lips off!!!”
His deep voice thundered over the water. We both clung to the sides of the rocking boat to keep it from tipping over.
I had seen the bobber go under and I reacted. The force of my trying to set the hook rocked that boat so hard that water splashed in and yes, flipping over was a possibility.
“Hey! You told me to watch the bobber and when it was pulled under I was to set the hook. I set the hook!”
He reached out over the edge of the boat and grabbed my line, bringing the hook up out of the water.
“I told you to set the hook on a bass, not a bluegill! Good Lord, girl, look at your hook – you tore the lips right off!”
He dangled the hook in front of me. I could see some white … things … on it. There they were.
Fish lips.
“Well, YOU told me what to do. I did it. If it wasn't such a weenie fish I would have pulled it into the boat.”
His eyebrows went up fast, then he sighed and said indignantly, “No such thing as a weenie fish, dear. Well, that's okay, you tried. I'm more upset about that danged seat!”
It was then I realized that when I pulled that pole up and behind me, I did it with such force the raised seat I was on snapped in half. I wondered how I managed to not tumble out of the boat.
“Oh, well, I'm sorry about that, honey. Surely you can fix it.”
“No! No! No I cannot fix it.” he was raising his voice again,” First, it’s a brand new seat and now it's shot to hell! Second, it snapped ragged, not clean. Third, get your pole back in the boat because we're going back to camp!”
If we had been on solid ground by now he would have been stomping away. As it was, he was stuck in the boat … with me.
“No, I'm not putting my pole away. I'm not done fishing. This time I won't yank so hard to set the hook.”
He looked at me, stunned. His face beet red, the tips of his ears even redder.
The top of his bald head was beaded with sweat.
If looks could kill I have a feeling I wouldn't be here today, sharing this story.
Then he looked over my shoulder and his eyes widened, “well, at least we provided entertainment for someone!”
I looked behind me and sure enough, there was a bass boat with two men on it, slowly and quietly backing out of the cove. They were quiet, though their shoulders were shaking from laughter.
I turned back to my husband of 15 years, the man who had patiently taught me how to fish for bass and crappie and now bluegill.
The man who had loaned me his favorite, lucky Remington Red fishing pole.
The man who took pride in having his own boat, small and humble as it was, to take his wife to his favorite fishing hole.
I looked at him and with as much sweetness and kindness and tenderness I could muster, I said “Honey, shhhh, you're yelling and they just might think you're going to hurt me.”
A surprised look came over his face. Then he sighed and smiled and soon was laughing.
“Hey, you know what? Let's get rid of that seat, bait up some hooks, and keep an eye out for that fish. I bet he'll float to the top soon.”
We fished for another couple of hours. We did catch a few sunfish and bluegill. And, I got the hang of setting the hook gently so I could catch the whole fish, not just the lips.
That lipless fish never did float to the top.
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A Marketing Tip
Video and short posts on social media are all the rage today. Not just for ads - for information and awareness. And many businesses and marketers are relying heavily on this type of content. They forget their audience is mixed and enjoys consuming content in many different ways.
Consider transforming the video and short posts into different type of info-products that could be sold on their own. Or used as a lead magnet. Or shared with your audience.
Information Products solve a problem. That's why people love them and buy them.
A few examples to get you thinking…think about the video script or multi-paragraph post and how it would look as one of the below.
1. Mini-books (they don’t all have to read like novels)
aka random bits of info you may or may not be able to use in your life
Decaf coffee started with a mistake. In the early 1900s, German roaster Ludwig Roselius discovered that seawater-soaked beans lost their caffeine but kept most of their flavor. From that happy accident came Sanka, the first major decaf brand…and the reason orange-handled coffee pots still mean “decaf” today.
Modern methods are much safer (think water filters or even super-pressurized CO₂), and while “decaf” isn’t truly caffeine-free, it now makes up about 12% of all coffee consumed worldwide. Not bad for a batch of soggy beans.
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Pun of the Day
Did you hear about the restaurant on the Moon? I heard the food was good, but it had no atmosphere.
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
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If you are at all informed /entertained /amused /educated by today’s edition of Burke’s Bits, here's where you can show your appreciation.
