IMPROVING FISHING IN THE POND OF LIFE

It is a well known, and scientific, fact that fish love structure. They feel secure hanging out near something in the water besides other fish, but in the absence of anything else, they will swim around widely dispersed or travel in hard-to-locate groups known as schools. However, lake, pond, or river fish prefer to hang out in fairly shallow water, with quick access to deeper water, near a log, or big rock, off a point.

To prove a point, I offer our situation Sunday at the theater. We arrived with just moments to spare and sat down high (about 10 rows from the top) and toward the middle of the theater, and for about five minutes thought we were going to be the only “fish” in the pond! I took this shot, just after coming back with popcorn, of Judy sitting by her lonesome to show everyone we had the show to ourselves.

However, just as the last trailer ended about six or eight other couples wondered in and every one of them sat within 6 to 10 feet of us. It must have been my old spare tire (structure, if you will) that drew them in close and made them seem safe. If you analyze our position, we were the point that jutted out into the pond (theater) just off easy access to the stairs leading down to deeper water!

I appreciate the fact that they improved our chances of surviving a shark, barracuda, or some other predator attack, but come on! Why, with 300 to 400 hundred other seats to choose from did they have to sit that close?

Judy and I used to bass fish, and we often dropped in structure, tires, old Christmas trees, etc. and photographed them from the river back toward the bank. When the water rose in the spring we knew exactly where the structure, and therefore the fish, was. I suppose I improved the fishing in the pond of life today as well!

Do you do this…do you sit close to others just because you feel safer? Do you pick the middle or end seats?

What drives your choice of theater seats, beside there are only two left?

Oh, the movie was “No Country for Old Men” staring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson, and Kelly Macdonald.

This movie has Oscar buzz attached to it, especially for the writing, directing, and the three main male leads. There is also some controversy over the ending, which I will not give away, but I can see why. I think the ending was one of the reasons Judy did not like it, but she said it was slow and boring. For me, I loved the writing and could see myself writing something similar, so I hung on every word spoken, especially by Tommy Lee. To me, his words were the key to enjoying the whole experience. His characters are always just that - an experience!