I Wish, I Wish To Catch A Fish

Steven and Sean while we were waiting for the boat to leave

Steven absolutely loves fishing.

And unlike his mother, he has the right temperament for it. He's patient.

And he's cursed with a mother that has no stomach for threading chicken livers onto hooks and casting them into the water only to have the chicken livers slide off the hook for the fishes' enjoyment, no strings attached.

Steven with one of his catches

We've been to the local "Fish With A Kid Day" in San Diego now twice and other folks have caught fish. But not Steven.

Last summer he went fly-fishing in Montana. Took a fly-fishing class, but didn't catch a thing during the week we were there. Sean caught five fish, my brother Arnold caught a pile of fish and Steven caught none.

But his cheerful attitude and desire to keep at it never flagged.

Sean showing off one of his fish

On August 10, we were invited to go for a half day on a sportfishing boat to film a special episode of Inside Sportfishing with Make-A-Wish kids and their families.

We left from Newport Beach with 12 Make-A-Wish kids, their families, a pile of volunteers, and a film crew for a day of fishing.

Porpoises followed our boat for part of the trip

There were more volunteers than kids. The volunteers would cast and the kids would reel in the fish.

It was my kind of fishing. The volunteers would as much or as little as we wanted, including baiting the hook, cutting the fish off the line, removing the hook, and storing the fish or throwing it back.

Eveyone caught a pile of fish. Steven caught four fish large enough to bring home.

Sean wanted to learn how to do it all by himself. He won't eat fish and wasn't interested in bringing any home.

Steven and his prize bonita

Steven caught the largest fish, a bonita.

There's a video online of the trip, including some footage of Steven and Sean. If you're running Windows, click here to view it. There's also an article from the Orange County Register about the trip.

Volunteers cleaned all the fish on the way back to the dock and gave them to us in a bag to take home.

Definitely my kind of fishing trip, no chicken livers, and I didn't have to handle any fish guts.

We're getting ready to head to St. Jude, Steven and I. We leave Sunday. I keep waiting for these trips to get easier.

They're not, really, but I'm getting used to the fact that, in the same way that I'm not a patient person, I'm also not calm when we return to St. Jude.

Steven will have to wait for his next life to get that patient, calm mother who loves fish guts.

We'll update when we have news.

- Kathleen