By By Leada Devaney, Hartselle Enquirer
Amazingly, the whole thing was my idea.
I had a meeting at the beach and since Greg was going with me, I thought I would plan something he would enjoy.
"We're going deep-sea fishing," I said.
"Who's going with me?" he said, with a look of sincerity on his face.
"I am, of course," I said.
"Oh," was the only reply.
It all seemed so innocent then. I knew we were in for a problem when I was told we had to be at the boat by 6 a.m. It takes a really big sale at Parisians to get me anywhere by 6 a.m., much less at a smelly fishing boat. Still, I had gotten us into this and I wasn't backing out now.
We arrived at the boat – an amazing 30 minutes early – and boarded. It was a nice boat, nothing like the USS Minnow I had predicted. The captain told us we would be riding for more than an hour before we arrived at the fishing spot.
During this long ride, we got to sit and watch the deck hand slice up the squid and other fish parts we would use for bait.
He would slice the frozen fish into big blocks, leaving the blood and guts behind. My stomach started rolling along with ocean.
After what seemed like years of cruising along, we arrived at the fishing spot.
"You are going to bait my hook aren't you?" I asked the deck hand. I noticed Greg had moved further down the boat deck from me, avoiding all eye contact.
The deck hand baited the hook, though he didn't look too thrilled to do so.
I dropped my squid-laden line in the water and almost immediately felt something yank my rod down.
"Pull it in," the deck hand said.
I started reeling. And I reeled and reeled and reeled.
Finally, I saw a bright red fish approaching the surface.
I pulled the fish into the boat. The poor thing was yanked off my line and flopped to the deck.
My stomach churned again. That was all it took.
"Well, I'm done," I said. Greg looked at me incredulously.
"We came all this way and you're going to catch one fish?" he said.
"Yep. I'm the only person on this boat who can say they caught something every time they put their line in the water. I figure I will quit while I'm ahead," I said.
I went into the boat's cabin, scrubbed my hands and took a nap.
Meanwhile, Greg and the others landed some 52 pounds of fish.
Afterwards, we posed proudly for a photo with all those fish.
"Did you get one, too?" a man asked me.
"Yep, a big one," I said.
And that was the truth.