Listening to what people are saying is a very beneficial skill
that comes easy to some, but usually not so easy for adolescents.
Dad was always good about taking my brothers and I fishing
when we were younger. It was an affordable way to keep the four of us entertained,
and most times we brought home a bunch of fish, which was also an affordable way
to fill our seemingly bottomless pits for stomachs.
The situation of icing and gear looked something like this - Dad
and my uncle built an ice fishing house big enough for about 2 adults and 4-5
kids (it was pretty sweet for the early 1980’s.) When the ice was at least 12
inches thick we’d haul the fish house onto an area lake, drill holes down
through the ice that lined up with holes in the bottom of the fish house, put
the house over those holes, turn on the propane heater, and start fishing. Each
of us had a little fishing pole. We’d put a worm on the hook and lower the line
down the hole. It was then just a matter of waiting for the bobber to go down,
setting the hook, and pulling up a fish.
On one occasion, my dad drilled a hole about 30 yards away
from the fishing house. He set up a “tip up,” which is a device that when a
large enough fish takes the bait, it releases (tips up) a flag into the air
letting you know a fish is there. In hopes of luring in a big fish, Dad loaded
the hook of the tip up with a large sucker minnow.
After an hour of fishing the sun was starting to set, and we had
already caught several fish by this time. Suddenly, Dad yelled, “TIP UP!” He hurdled
over two kids and much of the equipment that was between him and the door like
a finely trained olympic athlete. Busting out the door of the fish house, he
ran to the tip up and started pulling up line. The rest of us watched through
the window and door in awe. After what seemed like an eternity, Dad starting
yelling something at us while waving his arm. Without listening, we ran out to
him to see what all the commotion was about. As we got close to him, he turned toward
us and yelled, “I said, GET THE GAFF!” (A gaff is a stick with a large hook on
the end of it. Ours was an old broom handle with a large hook duct taped to the
end.) One of us finally came to our senses, ran back to the fish house,
retrieved the gaff and gave it to Dad. He extended his entire arm and the gaff
down the hole into the water, and in a quick jerk, he hoisted the biggest
Northern Pike I’d ever seen, up through the hole and onto the ice. It was awesome!
James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
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