Fish Tales from Tucker Lake

“Did you get a picture, Dad? Did you? He was big, wasn’t he? What kind did you say it was again?”
“A perch, and yes I got a picture.” Sidney’s dad had taken a picture of the fish as it lay on its side at the water’s edge. Because he took a close-up, there would be no way to tell the fish’s true size by looking at the picture. To Sidney it was huge, and that was all that mattered.
“You did a great job, Sid.”
“Thanks. I just pulled him straight in, eh? Piece of cake. Guess I’m a natural-born fly fisher. And I tied this fly too. All by myself. Remember? Since I couldn’t keep the fish, can I keep this fly? I want to tie more just like it ‘cause it really fools those fish, doesn’t it?”
“It sure does. Sidney’s dad smiled as he changed the fly. He was happy to see his son so excited about his first fish on a fly he had tied with “no helping allowed.” It was just as well Sidney’s special fly was nestled in the fleece drying patch on his vest, because his excitement threw off his timing. His first back-cast sent his fly into the trees behind him and the next into his Dad’s hat.
“Hey. Be careful. You just caught me.
“Sorry. That one got away from me.”
“That’s OK.” He removed his hat, dislodged the hook, and looked at his watch. “We’d better get packing up now. Mom said supper is at six tonight.”
“Aw, Dad. Just one more cast? Please?”
“All right. But just one more.”
The drive home was a 90-minute play-by-play of how Sidney tied the size 14 dragonfly nymph pattern and how he caught a huge—what was that, oh yeah—a huge perch on that very fly. When they got home, Mom heard the whole story too—at least five times. Sidney couldn’t wait to tell his friends about catching his first perch.

*****
Baldwin and Pat swam into the middle of the school. Pat said, “Hey guys, look who got yanked and escaped to tell about it.” The other perch checked out Baldwin’s lip. He’d been yanked all right. Pudgy turned a funny colour and got all shaky. Pudgy earned his nickname by growing bigger than the other fish. His brother had been even bigger. Pudgy had seen his brother get yanked. That was the last time he ever saw him. Danny ran his tongue over the scar on his lip. He too had been yanked, but the line had broken. He had come back with a small hook in his lip that his friends had to carefully pull out. But Baldwin was the first one to be smart enough to make a plan and athletic enough to escape. At least that’s what they all believed.
As one group left, other fish moved in to hear Baldwin’s story. But Baldwin didn’t want to tell the story anymore. He felt bad about lying, especially when he looked at Pudgy and Danny. Pat thought his friend was just being modest, so he started telling everyone the story himself. He was proud of Baldwin. When the last group left, Pat asked, “Hey buddy, what’s the matter? You look kind of funny.”
“To tell you the truth, I uh…I guess I’m just tired from all the excitement. I’d like to be alone for a while. Baldwin headed for the edge of the school.
Pat called after him, “Okay. I’ll catch you later. Ha Ha.”