The Greatest Fish Story Ever Told

True story with some embellishment about a fish...light fun.

“I don’t care how much they cost, I want them,” so said my very pregnant sister to her weary husband.  “But they are just towels, for Pete’s sake!  Who spends $75 on towels?!” he responded.  “No, they are not just towels, they are oversized beach towels made of 100% Pima cotton which makes them ultra soft, highly absorbing, and longer lasting.  They are so unbelievably beautiful too,” she sighed, standing her ground, while gazing lovingly at the offending towel in her hands.  “I love this one, with the silver octopuses and golden jelly fish.  Oh, and this one here too, with the orange glow fish and yellow baby sea horses.  And, well, we need three since Natalie will be spending part of the summer with us, so maybe this other one with the red and purple porpoises,” she went on. 

Walt, her now worn down husband, gave a deep sigh and acquiesced, as do most husbands with very pregnant wives.  “Two more months,” he thought, “two more months.”  With one last caustic remark, he said, “Fine, but we’ll either have to apply for a loan to pay for these or refinance our mortgage.”  Annie, not waiting for his answer, had already begun stuffing the huge and plush towels into their cart.  Then she looked up to her husband and gave him a big smile, which had the usual effect of melting what had once been immovable resolve.

It was the summer of 1995, and Walt and Annie were living at Ft. Benning, Georgia.  Walt was an Airborne Ranger with the Army, while Annie was an accountant with a local mall.  Both were also going to school at night to complete their Bachelor’s degrees, so life was very full and busy.  Fortunately, they were due to graduate in one month so the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel was in view.

Annie was desperate to be a mother.  She had waited purposefully to have a baby until she completed her degree, and in typical well-planned form, was due merely one month after graduation.  She told me one day on the phone, “My baby is going to be so lucky.  She’s gonna graduate from college before she’s even born.”

But this isn’t really a story about graduations, or babies.  This is The Greatest Fish Story Ever Told.  And here is how it all began.

My daughter, Natalie, was spending a couple of weeks with Walt and Annie that summer.  She was 15 at the time and had a very close and special relationship with Auntie, which was what she called Annie.  A typical teenager, everything seemed to bore her, but when she was with her Auntie, things were fun, different and special.  Natalie is my only child, so I was heartened by, and encouraged, this relationship as well as others Natalie had with extended family members.

Natalie arrived at the Atlanta airport in mid-July, and the three of them talked non-stop for the hour and a half ride back to Ft. Benning.  It was sweltering hot and humid, so that there were really only three places one should be when living in Georgia in July:  inside with air conditioning, on the lake, or in the pool.  Annie wanted to start Natalie’s visit off with a big bang so they had made plans to rent a boat at a nearby lake for the very next day.  They were going to ski, swim, and…FISH.

After eating the best spicy wings of her life, Natalie had collapsed into bed the night of her arrival, so excited about the next day.  She, like most of our extended family, loved being on the water and so could not think of another thing in the whole wide world that excited her more. 

They all arose early, around 6am, to get in as much time on the lake as possible before it became unbearably hot.  Dressed in bathing suits and cover-ups, the girls had their hair pulled back in ponytails, and wore no makeup, for it was a no makeup day.  All wore sneakers, with Walt in a white tee shirt and black trunks.  Annie had packed a bag the night before with the usual supplies such as sun screen, aloe, sun hats, trail mix, and various other items.  Of course she had also packed an oversized beach bag with the three special towels.  Walt had prepared a cooler with drinks, sandwiches, fruit and a beer or four which he’d smuggled in by burying them in the bottom.  Men.

Despite the early hour, all three were so excited to get going.  Walt had decided to rent a typical speed boat to cover all the bases.  It was a short ride of about 20 minutes to the Lake Wiles, and they found the dock without any problems.  While Walt settled the rental fee and collected the poles, bait and vests, Annie and Natalie loaded up the boat.  Since the owner had told them to pick which ever boat they wanted, Annie had deferred to Natalie to make the choice.  There were boats of almost every color.

Unfortunately, though pink was her favorite color, there were no pink boats in sight.  “Wonder why there are no pink boats?” Natalie said to Annie.  “Well, pink is pretty girly so they probably just try to keep things fairly subdued,” Annie grinned at her niece.  “Typical, tons of blue boats for boys but not a single pink one for girls,” Natalie responded with a huff, as only teenagers can, and her aunt busted out laughing at the logic of Natalie’s statement.  “You’re right, sweetie, you are absolutely right.”  But yellow was Natalie’s second favorite color, and there was a bright yellow boat with a green stripe on the sides just at the end of the dock, so they had their winner.

By the time Walt made his way to their sunny conveyance, the girls had everything organized and were ready to go.  Walt, laid all of his burdens on the dock and began passing them to Annie and Natalie to store on the boat.  Once everything was packed, Annie, a very experienced in driving a boat, started it up and off they went. 

The sky was a perfectly clear morning blue, and as Annie increased the speed, the wind whipped up and a few things started to fly around the boat that had to be re-secured.  Walt sat in the passenger seat next to Annie, while Natalie was comfortably spread out in the back, wind blasting her ponytail straight behind her.  “Faster, faster,” she yelled to Annie who laughed and increased their speed.

This was their first trip to the lake, which wasn’t overly large but had many streams, tributaries and inlets.  The lake was perhaps ten miles long or so, and about half a mile wide at its widest point.  They spent the better part of an hour just driving around the lake, taking in the beautiful shoreline with trees and undergrowth, white flowers and reeds of grass in every shade of green.  Auntie had brought waterproof disposable cameras and so there was lots of picture taking…Natalie standing up on the back seat, Annie driving, Walt with his legs propped up drinking one of his smuggled beers, and lots of scenery.  By this time it was nearing 11am, so they decided to drop anchor in the shade of a huge Beech tree near the shore.  They devoured their sandwiches, chips, and succulent strawberries one can only ever find in the summertime.

That sat in the shade for a bit, enjoying nature, and then decided it was time for a swim.  Walt jumped in first, the water plenty deep enough, in a huge cannon ball maneuver that showered the girls with a refreshing splash.  Next went Natalie, jumping in as well, attempting to create an even bigger splash.  As the two laughed and splashed water at eachother, Annie delicately made her way down the ladder and into the water.  When you are seven months pregnant, there is no better place to be than weightless, floating in perfectly warm water, so it was with a sigh of relief that she entered the lake.

They swam around in the murky water for about an hour, sometimes splashing, sometimes just treading, talking all the while.  Then it was time to do some fishing.  The sun was already high in the sky, which is not the best time for fishing, but they would give it a shot anyway.  Everyone made their way back into the boat, with Walt going up first so that he could help his wife back into the boat.  “If it weren’t for this massive watermelon, pregnancy really would be very easy,” Annie remarked sarcastically.

The fishing was simple, no fancy lures, rods or reels, just plain simple ones.  Actually, Walt had purchased earthworms as bait.  All they had to do is cast out, let the bait drop with the sinker, and start reeling in.  At first it was fun, but it soon got hot and they weren’t getting even a nibble, so they decided to pull up and do some skiing, needing the wind and water to cool them.  They spent a good amount of time with that, Annie doing the driving, while Walt and Natalie skied. 

It was great fun, and everyone was laughing non-stop.  Walt attempted to do various tricks as he moved outside the wake, trying to bring himself parallel to the boat, he was an experienced skier.  Natalie was content to stay right behind the boat where the water was most calm, being new to water skiing.  By the end of this part of the day, both Walt and Natalie were utterly exhausted.  Pulling the towels from the bag, both dried off as they decided to get underway, and just do some more driving around the lake.  Fortunately, the boat came with a canopy which they had raised, giving them much needed shade as they sat on their cool towels in their seats.

Walt, now in the driver’s seat, wasted no time in picking up speed and soon all three were laughing at the thrill of it, the boat sometimes skimming the water as it would jump over some other boat’s wake.  “Can someone grab me some water?” Walt asked.  Natalie said, “Here Auntie, let me get it,” not wanting her Aunt to stand up while the boat was moving.  Natalie stood up, holding on to the rail, and reached down to lift the top of the cooler.  Just as she did, her towel flew up our of her seat from a gust of wind, hung mid-air for a split second, and, to Annie’s horror, then fell into the lake as the boat sped onward.

“Stop! Stop the boat!” Auntie yelled to Walt over the loud engine.  Confused, he slowed the boat and then turned to his wife.  “What?  Why do you want to stop?  Is there too much bumping for you?” he asked with concern.  “The towel!! Natalie’s towel just flew out of the boat!!” she yelled, even though the engine was now very quiet.  Natalie looked up in horror to see her now empty seat.  “Quick!  Turn around!  We have to find it before it sinks!” 

They must have spent an hour or more looking for that towel.  Annie was insistent that it could still be floating on, or just under, the water.  Finally, Walt said, “Honey it’s gone.  We’re never going to find it now.  We don’t even know if we’re looking at the right place.”  “I’m so sorry Auntie!,” Natalie said.  “Oh honey, it’s not your fault!  You do not need to feel bad.  It is just a towel,” her Aunt said comfortingly, even though, inside, she was really upset to lose the towel.  It is easy to get upset about things when you are carrying a watermelon around all day.

Finally they gave up, and decided on one more attempt at fishing before heading back to the dock.  It was extremely hot, but they had rented the boat for six hours and wanted to get their money’s worth.  This time, they dropped anchor further from shore.  They fished for about thirty minutes with no luck, and just when they were about to call it a day, Natalie, who was slowly reeling in her line, suddenly got a hit!  Finally!  Everyone screamed at once!  Her pole bent down so sharply that the tip could almost have touched the reel.  “Uncle Walt, it’s a big one I think!” Natalie yelled.  “It is so heavy!” “Stay at it, just keep reeling it in, drop your rod down then pull up and reel.  Natalie was doing her best, but the fish was so large and heavy, her arms began shaking after only a few minutes. 

“Do you want me to take over?” Auntie asked.  “Yes, I don’t think I can do anymore!” Natalie responded, clearly relieved.  Auntie took the rod and pulled up, “Good grief, this is huge!!!  I’ve never felt a fish this heavy!! Don’t drop off!  Don’t drop off!  Don’t drop off!” she pleaded.  All were screaming with excitement, and it didn’t take long before Auntie handed off the rod to Walt.  “Grab the net! Grab the big net!  Boy it’s a fighter!  Could be a bass!” Walt yelled, and Auntie retrieved it from the side of the boat where it was stashed.  Walt had done a lot of fishing in his day and had never felt anything this big.  

Not only was it heavy, but his line was moving around backwards, forward, and side to side.  This fish was not giving up easily. All three were now standing on the left side of the boat, Walt bending over, reeling in the massive fish as visions of a granddaddy large mouthed bass danced in his head.  Annie had her net at the ready, partially in the water, and Natalie was jumping up and down with excitement.

Finally, as all three stared wide-eyed into the depths of the water, they began to make out the silver and gold colors of the sparkling fish.  “Oh it’s so beautiful! Look how it shines!” Auntie laughed excitedly.  

“Are you ready with the net?  As soon as you scoop it up, hand the net to me and you take the rod.  Don’t lift the fish out of the water,” Walt instructed.  “Natalie, get ready to move back out of the way once I get it on board.”

And so, with one great last pull, Walt reeled up the fish, Auntie scooped, and quickly passed the net handle to Walt, taking the pole.  Walt took the handle with two hands and lifted, quickly bringing the massive fish into the boat where it flopped on the floor. 

There was total silence other than the sound of the fish, not a word for probably 15 seconds, as all three stared in wonder at their catch.  For there on the floor of the boat was the rod, the reel, the line, the hook, the sinker and a small-mouthed baby bass of about half a pound which was hooked through the thin skin on the side of his mouth.  And there was something else on that hook, which must have been caught after the fish was hooked and the reeling in had begun.  There, next to the flopping baby fish, lay their lost towel of silver octopuses and golden jelly fish.

So the moral of the story is this:

If you lose your expensive beach towel to a lake,

and you are 7 months pregnant, and short of cash,

...then just don’t you wait.

Just go fishing for bass, and effortless, your take,

will be a fish, nicely swaddled in that towel,

...fixing your mistake.

The End.

©2012 Barbara Brown

All rights reserved

01/11/12

Author's Note

true, true, true!

Awards:

- What A Mad World It Is - 4th Place

Reviews

[Omegax45]

This is an amazing story. And you say it really happened? How bizarre. So it was the little fish that stole the towel. Must've liked the design (lol).

[BLBrown]

Yes all true...amazing.