{"id":346,"date":"2007-01-07T23:58:37","date_gmt":"2007-01-07T23:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynngoya.com\/?p=346"},"modified":"2022-01-30T00:50:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T00:50:05","slug":"fishing-tales-create-lifelong-friendships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lynngoya.com\/index.php\/2007\/01\/07\/fishing-tales-create-lifelong-friendships\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishing Tales and Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fishing Tales and Friendship<\/strong><\/p>\n

The wind chimes were going mad Saturday morning, a clear signal for my husband, Alan, to stay in bed instead of rising before dawn to put on his waders to go fishing.\u00a0 Lake Mead\u2019s proximity<\/a> was one of the major reasons we moved to Boulder City<\/a> fifteen years ago.\u00a0 Most weekend mornings will find Alan in his float tube on the lake.\u00a0 The shore fishermen (mostly men) get there when the sky is still full of stars, float in the water or stand in their armpit-high waders, casting their lines, letting their voices carry to each other across the pre-dawn blackness, waiting for the Great White striper to strike.<\/p>\n

Food, Fish Tacos and Friends<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan\u2019s been fishing and feeding his friends since he was a boy growing up in Hawaii.<\/a>\u00a0 Instead of organized sports, fishing absorbed their afternoons<\/a> and summers.\u00a0 They\u2019d fish, free dive, spearfish, and surf,<\/a> bringing home enough seafood to fill their freezers, their friends\u2019 freezers, their neighbors\u2019 freezers until the pots of everyone they knew were overflowing. So, in the middle of a desert, Lake Mead casts an irresistible lure. Here the variety of fish is minimal, but Alan\u2019s fish tacos, featuring hand-caught striper, are legendary, especially among BC kids.<\/p>\n

Unbreakable Lines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the past decade the invisible shore fishers whose voices call out to each other over the darkness have become linked.\u00a0 In the predawn blackness their voices skim the water in a bawdy exchange of tall tales, daily fishing tips and updates on the figmentary notches on their fishing poles.\u00a0\u00a0 The voices have also told of cancer, Alan\u2019s open heart surgery, divorce, death and financial destruction.<\/p>\n

Fishing Tales and Friendship<\/p>\n

It\u2019s light out and I take my binoculars to look for shore birds.\u00a0 While I look for heron, eagles, grebes and ibis,<\/a> Alan seeks his friends, many ensconced in their trucks to keep warm as they watch their lines.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019ll worry if I don\u2019t check in,\u201d he says, which is more than I can say about my birds.<\/p>\n

By Lynn Goya<\/a><\/p>\n

Lynn Goya favorite destination: Spirit Mountain<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n