Like watching Fish in the Grass

Was able to sneak out for an early morning run by myself this morning and was fortunate to see large numbers of carp rolling in the grass where the river was running high. Fortunate because it meant that I could stop running and watch them for a while and also because it meant I could drag the kids down to the river and see if they could hook on to a river pig. The kids were just rolling out of bed when I return but were quickly eager to grab their poles and some slices of bread for dough balls and head out on a carping adventure. The both jumped in the rickshaw and I tossed on my roller blades and we hit the bike trail to make the best time possible. The sun was still low in the sky but hot as would later be evident by the degree of sunburn on my back. Merrick had his small Lightning McQueen fishing pole and Sophia's weapon of choice was a new 4 foot Ugly Stik. Sophia was given a treble hook given her age and experience casting while Merrick, given his age was given just a bobber. It was a bright bobber and he really just wants to cast and reel so there is no reason to increase the risk of hooking somebody. Even with just a bobber he managed to tangle Sophia's line on the first cast. Sophia has the patiences of a nun and sat for about an hour and half waiting for a fish to bit. The fish were surfacing, rolling and roiling the water all around but alas they did not bite for her. Merrick was less interested in the fish and thought it would be way cooler to feed out bait to the nearby Herring gulls. He doesn't have the patiences of Sophia and the distractions of the nearby bike trail were too much for his candidate personality. If he wasn't making promises to the gulls then he was waving and smiling to the passerbys on the trail.