Gone Fishing

“How’re you gonna get your fishing badge, anyways?” asked Haru as he watched his roommate sew his latest badge onto his Mothscouts sash. He was mildly surprised as how Tisias had been progressing through the ranks – the sparkly teen hadn’t really struck him as the outdoorsy type.

“Easy,” replied Tisias without looking up from his handiwork, “Have you met my dad? I grew up fishing.”

“Yeah, but I thought you were opposed to the suffering of animals,” Haru pointed out.

Tisias bit off his thread and tied his sash loosely around his neck, setting his sewing needle carefully aside. Then, he looked up and gave Haru a familiar cross-eyed smile, “I have a method.”

“A method?” asked Haru, his interest piqued.

“Yeah,” said Tisias, getting up to rummage in his closest. A few moments later, he emerged with a fishing pole, a tackle box and a net, “Want me to teach you? It works better if we work as a team.”

“Sure!” responded Haru, a twinkle in his bright blue eyes.

“Okay, grab your sash and take this net,” Tisias instructed, handing the net off to his friend and using his now-free paw to grab his flowery straw sunhat, “We’re headed for Aran Lake.”

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It was high noon by the time the duo reached Aran Lake. The early September sun beat down upon them, just hot enough that Tisias was grateful for his sunhat. He tried to hide his panting as he set down his tackle box.

Haru gripped the net in his sweaty pawpads and gazed out over the lake, “So uh… what am I supposed to do exactly?”

Tisias grinned ear to ear, “Well, you’ve heard of catch-and-release fishing, right?”

Haru nodded.

“Well, usually catch-and-release fishing harms the fish my puncturing their mouths with painful hooks,” Tisias explained, “but this is my own new and innovative approach to a truly harm-free fishing experience!”

“So how does it work?” asked Haru.

“so glad you asked,” Tisias beamed, reaching for his tackle box, “First, we bait the line. Artificial bait, of course. Nothing live. And no hook, of course.”

Haru watched carefully as Tisias tied a rubber worm onto his line. The lure smelled faintly of anise.

“Next, I cast my line,” Tisias explained as he did exactly that, “And then – here’s the innovative part – you swim out there with your net and scoop up any fish that comes for the lure!”

“I… swim out there?” Haru asked.

“Yeah, just tread water until something comes for the bait.”

“What I do if I catch something?”

“Just dump it back in.”

“This seems like an awful lot of effort just to scoop up a fish and then release it immediately thereafter,” said Haru, looking uncertainly out at the lake.

“It’s for sport!” Tisias explained.

Haru scrunched up his nose and gazed out at the red and white bobber floating several yards away from them in the lake, then shrugged and put the net between his teeth before sliding into the water, his long fur billowing around him. Slowly and inexpertly, he made his way out to the bobber and transferred the net back to his paws. “Now what?” he shouted back to Tisias.

“Just wait!” Tisias shouted back. In the time it took Haru to swim out to the bobber, Tisias had made himself comfortable on the shore with a book and a bottle of sparkling water.

Haru scrunched up his nose again, “For how long?”

Tisias shrugged, “Until a fish arrives.”

“Great,” Haru muttered to himself, “Good job Haru, you just signed up to spend the whole day floating in a lake doing nothing.”