great post!
My dad never took me to no pond, we lived on a boat on the river so water was a norm. I looked forward to going to the lake in the winter to auger a hole out big enough to pull walleye through. I hated cold then and I hate cold now so nothing's changed in that sense.
When we moved here, I met this girl who owns about 3000 acres not too far from here. Some of it is leased out, some of it is farm land (hers) and some is just untouched woods. Lots of ponds. We rode the 4 wheelers out to one of them, her riding on her lonesome and I carrying the tackle box and 2 fishing rods. We get to the pond, and I could have cared less about fishing--the place was stunningly pretty, up on a ridge overlooking everywhere it seemed. Plus I had a pretty girl with me. Well anyway after I got less interested in all that and more interested in fishing, decided to look for bait. She'd already caught several nice gills on I think was a trout magnet. I found some grasshoppers and hooked them. Bang, more bluegills and good sized ones. Wore that hopper out and threw another on. casted way out to the other end of the pond and it sat there. Nothing. Disappointed. She was laughing at me saying you ain't got no bait, and I figured she was probably right. Reeled it in and hung up. Dangit. Log. Nope! I don't know what kind of fish it was but it had to have been 20lbs or better, maybe a catfish dunno-I was playing it and she grabs the line with her grubby hands and the line breaks.
Never forget it. Mostly the fishing, don't think about her much.