5 minute freewrite 2736 prompt simplicity

This is my post for @freewriters 2736 prompt simplicity hosted by @mariannewest

Today, my sister and I ran the pigfish traps that we put in the river yesterday, we caught 90 of them. I know that sounds like a lot of bait to go fishing with, but it is only half as many as we need. I like to take somewhere between 200 and 250.

Yesterday, I told her that after we ran the traps, we would take my small poles and try to catch croakers for bait too. I have some packages of clams in her freezer and told her to bring a pack of them for croaker bait. She asked me to write down everything she needed to do and bring for today. I made the list, she needed to get us gas, get the clams from her freezer, and if she had #8 hooks, to bring them. She showed up with her tackle box and two of her fishing poles. She forgot the clams because she lost the list I made for her, so we could not try to catch the croakers.

She said she could not go tomorrow, and the gas here is 3.09, so she did not get it. She said she can get it cheaper in Vero and will get it there tomorrow. This does not make any sense to me, she is going to drive 20 miles to save 20 cents a gallon, her Ford 150 will burn more gas than she is trying to save by buying it there. Now she calls and says her plans for tomorrow have changed, and she can go so before coming to get me, she has to buy the gas here.

She has never commercial fished, but has been around commercial fisherman for most of her life, and I think she thinks it will be a fun and easy job. I have news for her, there is nothing simple about fishing for a living. I tested her today to show her there's no simplicity in it. She has only "play fished" with me.

I wanted to see if she could catch anything, so I had her use some of the bait we caught, and I know it is not her fault, but I think she has cataracts, she has a hard time seeing the cork. She had what I know was a trout hit her bait, and I told her the cork is under, and she yanked back on her pole, but she did not have her line tight and missed it. I do not know if I can sit there and watch someone miss fish. My anxiety was off the chart, even with knowing that if she did catch it, we had to throw it back because we did not have any ice with us. I can not imagine how I will handle it when money is involved.

I also told her that she was going to have to listen and do what I say without getting mad because I am telling her how to fish. She would put a pigfish on the hook and let it hang in the water while she talked to me or got a drink. I tried to explain to her that by the time she got her line thrown out, her bait was already tired from fighting the cork, and a tired pigfish will not grunt or swim around, all she will catch is catfish.

Next, I tested her on rowing the boat, which I found out, she does not know how to row properly. I tried to get her to spin the boat with the oars by rowing in two directions, but she could not do it. She rowed with one oar in the water and told me to hush. Trout fishing, you row the boat backwards, so you can see where you are going. You fish from the stern and want to see where to anchor, she wanted to row with the bow facing the direction to fish. All I could do was pray for the Lord to keep me from losing my cool.
photo is mine