A Canadian Fish Tale

My father-in-law tells a story about the time he and some hunting buddies went up to Canada to hunt caribou. While in Montreal, waiting for the bush plane to take them up to the campsite, they decided to get some fishing gear, since they would be hunting next to a fairly large river.

Their cabbie spoke greenback and soon they were at a fishing outfitter store, likely the cabbie's cousin's store, and they made their purchases. They joked about the large landing net they were buying, big enough to handle Moby Dick, saying at least they could catch the caribou in it since nothing they had ever caught before in the states was large enough to warrant such a huge net.

After setting up camp in the wilderness, a few fishing buddies went down to the river to try their luck. The first cast was hit by a lake trout which proceeded to strip the line off the fishing reel until it hit the backing, the line stretched and finally snapped, the fish was never seen again. Another of the fishing buddies was soon into a large fish, another lake trout. This one was handled better and was brought to shore, but when it came time to net it, it seemed the fish was too large and hung over the side of the net almost bending the handle when lifted from the water. Their caribou sized landing net was too small for the fish!

My father-in-law did manage to score a nice trophy caribou, but the biggest smile comes to his face when he relates how he and his friends were strung along the river, each battling a fish, cursing at each other to "Bring me the #&@* net" "Hell no, I'm busy, get the @#*% net yourself!" and each time, the net was too small to handle the fish they were catching.

I know fish tales grow with the retelling, but in Canada you had better supersize the dipnet, eh?