Letter to teachers and kids – May 8, 2008
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Dear teachers and kids,
Well, we made it out fishing for the first time this year. All in all, it was a semi-disaster in terms of training fish pointers.
Oh, we had fun all right. Bandit got to splash in the lake by the shore. I got to do all the work launching and lugging things from the truck to the boat. Smokey barked out advice.
"Don't forget to put in the boat plug...AGAIN," Smokey said. "Remember that one time when we almost sunk because the old guy forgot to put in the boat plug and water was coming in?" Bandit laughed and splashed.
"Don't forget the doggie snacks...AGAIN," Smokey said.
"We'll starve. We'll starve. We'll starve. But we're having fun, fun, fun," Bandit answered.
I remembered the boat plug and the snacks. The outboard motor started. Bandit ran from the front of the boat to the back of the boat and back to the front again. It's not that big of a boat, but Bandit was making the most of what he had.
And, eventually, we started fishing. And I started looking to my two fish pointers to do what they were supposed to do -- point fish.
"Let's go here. Let's go there. The fish are on the other side of the lake," Bandit told me. I knew better. He just wanted to zoom around the lake all day. He didn't have a clue where the fish were.
Smokey, on the other hand, stretched out on the floor of the boat with his ear pressed to the boat bottom.
"I'm listening for fish," Smokey said. "I'm listening real....yawn.....real.....yawn....real........"
Listening for fish? If that was the case, why did Smokey start to snore -- (yes, Smokey snores) -- after just a few moments of his so-called listening.
Bandit spent the afternoon watching ducks fly over the boat. He kept trying to get me to go to shore so he could run around. He even told me that he knew there was a fish over on the top of one big hill. And if Smokey ever heard any fish, he didn't tell me about it.
As for the old guy, well, I hate to admit it but I never caught a thing. It was nice out there on the lake. I watched the ducks, hawks circling overhead, even a couple of deer that I saw on the shoreline. But I never saw a fish. Maybe next time I will, if my fish pointers help me even a little bit.
The biologists of Missouri-Yellowstone Adopt-A-Fish don't have too many fish movements to report this week. They're busy trying to capture pallid sturgeon near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. But this week would be a good time to look at what they do to fit radio transmitters in the fish and how they follow them. You can find it at: http://www.pikemasters.com/adopt-fish/study.html. Just follow the links and you'll learn how they capture fish and see where they go.
If you have any questions of the biologists or want to send an e-mail to me, or Smokey, or Bandit, just send it to E-mail Smokey, Bandit and the Old Guy. We'll answer you as quickly as we can.
Talk to you next week.
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Signed,
Mark, the old guy
Smokey, the fish pointer
Bandit, "We're having fun, fun, fun."