Fishing Buddies

“Oh come on!”

“Seriously, it was three feet if it was an inch.”

A long hearty laugh was his reply.  The two brothers had been fishing together for nearly 30 years and each year their fish stories grew an inch or two.

“You just don’t remember that’s your problem.” Tom turned away from his younger sibling.  He casted his worm out a little harder than intended and the sad little hook and beat up bobber ended up in a tree.  His arms began to pull and tug in an attempt to loosen the trapped line.  Behind him the laughing intensified.

“Just shut up you!” Tom retorted.

After a few more seconds of tugging the lure dropped down into the water with a loud “ker-Plunk!”  Satisfied with it’s positioning Tom settled deep into the bench seat of the boat.  James, the younger of the two, laughed for a few more minutes then calmed down.

“I suppose you meant to do that?” he asked.

“Just fish,” Tom flatly replied.

James snickered and threw his line a few inches away from Tom’s.

“Now what did you do that for?”

“That’s my spot.”

“What?  My line was there first.”

James grinned, “Only because the tree threw it there.”

Tom only growled a bit and looked towards the bobbers.  Each of them was gone!

“Fish on!” he yelled.

“Me too!” James shouted.

They battled the fish for a few minutes.  A peculiar thing began to happen.  Each time Tom reeled, James’ line began to pull and when James jerked, Tom’s fish jerked too.  They were facing opposite sides of the boat and didn’t realize what the other was doing.

“This one is a monster!” Tom proclaimed.

James looked back as he jerked his line. 

The boat rocked back and forth as he began to laugh.