Fishing: The Encounter

"Oh, oh!" I said to myself, as I saw the yellow and green half-ton truck barreling down the dirt road, cross over the bridge, make a quick left hand turn, pull up right beside us and slam on the brakes. When I read Conservation Authority on the door of the truck, and saw the faces of the two men who were inside, I knew that we were in big trouble.

The summer day had started nice, as the weather had turned warm, after an early morning cloudburst. It seemed like a perfect day to get out and about.

"Let's go fishing," I suggested to Gayle. "I just bought some fishing gear and I want to set up a fishing pole for Crystal."

Crystal was eleven, almost twelve years of age, a lovely native girl, who had been brought to live with her grandparents. Almost as soon as we met, she had asked me if I would adopt her, because her parents had disappeared. No one had any idea where they were, or if they were coming back. I knew from the expression on her face that she was scared and I could tell that she had already adopted me.

Actually, I was kind of liked the idea.

"Sure," Gayle said. "That sounds like a great idea. Can we go out to see my old house and do some fishing in the river there? We might catch some trout."

"Sure," I said, with a smile. "Do you know how to get there?" I did not know exactly where it was located, but knew it was out in the country.

"Of course," she replied. "Just follow this road. It goes there."

I was hesitant, as it was against my better judgment to head out anywhere without a road map, but she seemed certain that this was the right way to go. 

An hour or so later, I began to realize that we were not going to get there on this road. We were heading directly north into wilderness country. I knew that we should have been going west.

"This seems like a long way," I said to Gayle, finally. "Are you certain this is the right road?" It had not turned west.

After questioning her further, I began to realize that she had no idea where we were. I was not about to panic, as I figured I could just turn around and go back the same way that we came. Rather than driving around all day, I wanted to get in some serious fishing.

Just then, we came to a bend in the road.

To our left, I saw a large body of water. I knew that this could not be the river where we wanted to go fishing. It was a lake that seemed strange to me, but somehow it brought back some vague recollections of a place that I had once visited.

"I see a boat launch pad just over that bridge," I said, not wanting to alarm her. "That looks like the perfect spot! We can do some fishing there, right on the shore." I had already decided not to go any further along this road. "I can turn around there too," I said to myself.

I drove into the boat launching area carefully, trying not to hit any of the big puddles, in case we got stuck in the mud. I could see the remnants of a campfire that had been rained on and fresh tire tracks. Someone had probably spent the night there.

"Hey, it is a nice place!" Gayle said. "Can eat our lunch here? I am going to take some charcoal home with me. I can draw with that! I didn't bring a fishing pole."

"I know, not a problem," I said. "We'll cut a willow pole for you and I have everything else you'll need in the trunk. Grab a can of pop out of the back. Take out one for me, too."

As I got out of my car, I took a careful look around. This appeared to be a long lake with a river that fed into it at one end. Across the lake, I could see a few summer cottages, so it looked relatively safe. There was not a soul in sight.

I grabbed my car keys and dug deep in the trunk of my car for the new fishing gear that I had just purchased. I had not even taken the time to unwrap the packages or remove the price tags. 

"I have everything we need! Here, this willow branch is just about the perfect size for a fishing pole," I said, reaching into the back pocket of my blue jeans. I pulled out my penknife to cut it for her. "It is almost as long as you are tall."

I had an ulterior motive. That was just about how tall Crystal was. I figured Gayle could use it for the moment and if she did not want to keep it, then it would become Crystal's fishing pole. I could cut off about six inches of the pole and leave it set up for fishing. I was certain that Crystal would be thrilled with it.

"Let's see, fishing line, bobber, weight and a fishing hook!" Gayle was getting excited, as she watched me set everything up. "Now we need some bait."

I saw another puzzled look on her face.

"We don't have any," she replied.

I walked over towards one of the big, mud puddles and lifted a huge, flat rock. Sure enough, there were a couple of juicy looking fish worms. I knew that there would be. I baited the hook with one of them.

"Hang onto this one for me," I said, as I handed her one of the other fish worms. By the look of her face, I knew that it must have been a long time since she had been fishing.

"Yuk," she said, as it wiggled in her hand. "You are cute!" she said to the fish worm, after a moment.

"There, that's perfect! Go to it," I said with a smile, handing her the pole.

Gayle smiled back at me, but I could see that she still did not know what I meant, so I took the end of the line that had the fish worm on it and tossed it into the water for her. The water was about six inches deep there. She was delighted.

"All right!" she said, handing me the other, wiggly fish worm.

"Now for mine," I replied and began to set up my fishing pole too. It was a collapsible, compact fishing rod that would fit into my fishing box, although the only thing I had not purchased yet, was the box for the fishing gear. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to use the rod. 

"Hey, not a bad cast at all! This works great! We might even catch ourselves some fish for supper. It has been a long time since I went fishing."

Gayle was standing there, very quietly holding her pole in the six inches of water.

That is the moment when I spotted the trunk speeding down the gravel road, on the other side of the lake.

"I want to see your fishing licenses," the man in the driver's seat said abruptly, as he got out of the truck and walked towards us. He was at least six feet tall with very dark hair and big, bushy eyebrows. He was obviously a conservation officer.

"I did not know that we needed licenses," I replied, stunned at what he had just said. "I am sorry. I had no idea. I have not been fishing in northern Ontario for years and years. We never needed licenses then."

"You don't have fishing licenses and you two are fishing?" I could sense his displeasure. "These girls don't have any fishing licenses," the conservation officer hollered to the other man still sitting in the truck.

"What on earth are you two doing here without any fishing licenses?" he asked.

"Hmm," he said, as I explained to him about Crystal. "That’s a likely story. Give me your driver's licenses then. You do have those, don't you?"

"Sir," I said politely. "It is not like we are trying to do anything illegal. Gayle has a willow pole and it is about six inches of water that she is fishing in. It is not highly likely that we are going to fish the lake out, or anything like that. Besides that, we just got here."

"Your licenses," he insisted. "You know that you could lose all of your fishing gear for fishing without a license?"

"No," I said honestly, as we both pulled out our driver's licenses and handed them both to him.

"And your gear too," he said sternly. "I am going to check you two out."

"Aw, come on, we are doing this for a twelve year old, native girl that I am considering adopting," I said. 

"Please. This is only pop that we are drinking."

The officer headed back to his truck with our driver's licenses and all of our fishing gear. He did not say one word, as he got in and slammed the door shut. We could hear the two men talking, but could not hear what they were saying.

"It's all right," I said to Gayle, trying to re-assure her. "He will give them back to us."

"I don't know," she said. "He looks pretty mad to me."

I was not all that certain that he would give anything back to us either.

We waited patiently and watched him using a radio of some kind. Then the two men just sat there in the truck and talked for a while. It seemed forever and a day.

"All right," he said finally, as he got out of the truck and walked over to where we were waiting patiently. "You will know better next time, I hope."

"By the way sir, can you tell us where we are?" I asked as he handed our driver's licenses and the fishing gear back to us.

"Surprise Lake," he replied, with a straight face. He turned back towards his truck and did not say another word. As they left, we could hear them roaring with laughter.

We laughed too, as we carefully packed up all of our gear and headed back the same direction that we came from.

I knew exactly where we were then. I had spent part of a summer at Surprise Lake, when I finished grade twelve, as a babysitter for a family with two little boys. No wonder the place looked so familiar to me!

"Anyhow, I have a fishing story to tell Crystal," I said to Gayle. "Let's stop at the old country store and get an ice cream on our way home." I knew exactly where that was and sure enough, the old store still sold ice cream.

As for Crystal, I soon learned that adopting her meant that she thought that she had immediate and total access to everything that I owned. Thus, so much for the adoption that never did happen.