Thursday, July 29, 2010

Saturday Badin Lake Ms. Arcen's first Fish

This was our first trip to Badin Lake with the time share canoe since last year. Ms. Arcen, Zoo and I got a late morning start on the water after putting in out on Kings Mountain Point in the Uwharrie Recreation area. It was hot, near 100F but all of that water and a light summer breeze made the conditions feel not so bad. Zoo the Bluder had never been in a boat before so we gave her the rules up front: DO NOT BE CRAZY. She did well and wound up sitting, standing and laying on the floor of the canoe in between Ms. Arcen and I while we paddled for our first destination which was the big undeveloped island directly to our north.

Within a few minutes from leaving shore Ms. Arcen asked me to drop the line of her fishing pole with a small Mepps Minnow spinner already on the swivel out the back of the boat. I cast the bait off and let out a bunch of line before closing the bail and resting her pole in front of me. The paddle paced trolling line was out and we continued over the water in fine fashion. When we reached the island we went left along the coast staying 10-20 meters from shore and worked our away around the point towards the north side of the island where we found a sandy cove perfect for swimming. When Ms. Arcen jumped out into the water for the swim she had on her mind the entire morning, I took charge and reeled in her line. Sun light was bouncing off the water when it hit. It was there but not big, at first I even thought it may have been weeds or a small twig or I would have handed her the pole immediately. Then the small striped bass(8-10") broke water a few feet out. Ms. Arcen was blown away seeing this was the first fish we had caught in the last six years of trying. I took it as gently as possible off the hook and handed it to her. She petted it softly on the head and made a comment about how the silver scales felt to her. I watched as my kid lowered her hands under the water and slowly released her grip as the fish darted quickly into the depths in front of us. Mein Shatz smiled and went back to swimming with the husky who looked perfectly natural in the setting we were in.

For whatever reason, perhaps it was being caught up in the moment of father/daughter transfer I did not stop or redirect the events to make an image of her first and perhaps only catch. Later on in the day I did however take the ones you see below. We went to three islands total that afternoon and spent over fiver hours out.





2 comments:

Kark said...

Hey Billy, the second shot looks like maybe a polorizer filter was on, but what about the first one? post process or filter or setting or..?

Billy Fehr said...

Kark,
The first shot(and all posted today) is with my 35mm dslr and an old 50mm manual lens which leaves me without a meter. So, I was just making a test exposure which wound up super hot. When I pulled the shot up in my digital tray I simply added a bit of conrast and liked what I saw. It is a neat image that if you look at sideways appears like an album cover.