Felix, Max and friends go carp fishing

Opus2: lots of fun, but a not so happy ending

Max is a young angler who is fascinated by carp. See the story his first carp here. After the "first carp" success a few weeks, we had scheduled another session, and the goal was loftier this time, make sure Max would catch another one, and have his friends catch one as well. While we were at it, my son Felix and my wife Edith also came, so that Felix would catch something as well.

So yesterday evening, a full bucket of flavored maize went into the river at our magic "special newbies" spot, and we were there this morning at 9AM. Right away, I saw a pretty nice carp swimming around, definitely bigger than the usual out there. Cool. We chummed with sweet corn to revive their appetite, watched the fish for a while on the Aquavu, and... Where are our guests? A little late. We couldn't stand it, so we started to fish with Felix. Lost one, then got a small one.

Then... a monster run. Felix played it well with a bit of help, and look what ended up on the mat? A fat 19 pounder! Which is very exactly the size of the largest fish I ever caught at this spot! Our guests showed up right at this time, and the excitement level went up a few notches... 

 

One of the moms figured out by herself how to set up the sweet corn on the hair, nice work. And fish kept coming and splashing!

Here are a few nice pics from Lucy, the rig making mom. The next series of fish for everyone, and hey, they were starting to learn how to hold the fish by themselves. I couldn't believe the last one was only 11 pounds and a half.

So we were close to the end of a great session, and it was Felix turn to catch one. Felix was in charge of throwing a few handfuls of corn after every catch, and took heart in his mission. We started to setup up his rod, life was beautiful, and then... things turned sour.

We were fishing on a bike path. Did it for many years in the past. Everybody passing by with his bike slows down, notably with the kids around. Well, one did not, charged full bore, and Felix didn't see him and made an unexpected move (didn't start to run or anything silly, mind you, just took one step in the wrong direction). I didn't see the guy coming either, I was busy with the rods, and when I turned around, my kid was flying in the air and rolling on the concrete.

It took exactly half a second for the biker and his friend to start yelling "this is not our fault, this kid is out of control". Felix was still rolling on the concrete. I'll never forget that.

Felix's head was bleeding, he has bad scratches all over his body. I yelled at the guy for a few seconds, but then thought better and we took care of the kiddo. Who was shocked, yet brave and didn't cry. Five minutes later, when we were all feeling better that he was scratched all over the place, but not seriously injured, I went to see the asshole and his buddy. Who refused right away to give me name & phone number, and stubbornly refused to acknowledge any responsibility. It was either my fault or Felix fault. Now that's grand, the guy saw the kid from at least 50 yards away, didn't slow down, didn't control his bike, sent a 6 years old kid flying on the concrete, and... this is the kid's fault! They even complained because the guy who hurt Felix had his little pinky bleeding!

Those who knows me personally know that I never make a scene in public, do not speak loudly at idiots who may cross my path, but this time I spent 10 minutes screaming at the guys, using quite a few decibels... And those sorry excuses for a human being didn't apologize a single time, didn't ask a single time if the kid was ok and just took off. Unbelievable.

Anyway, we're back home, Felix is still a bit shocked, but resting quietly, I'm still fuming, but if not for this sour ending, we had a fantastic day, two kids caught their very first carp, and... Felix got a new Personal Best! Not that many 6 years old kids can claim a 19 pounder!