the angler

the angler
by celeriko

the angler woke up one fine day with but one thing on her mind.  fish. bass pike muskie catfish stripper salmon sunfish the lot of em.  she loved everything about fish.  she was born into it...

she woke up this fine day with her brand new bait casting rig all set with the newest and strongest braid on the market.  no fish is going to break this line today she thought as she walked through her backyard to the pond behind her house. fastening her hook on with a perfect palomar she tossed a fresh juicy worm smack dab in the middle of the pond.

as it so happens the fish in that quaint pond had just feasted on a large school of fruit flies that had migrated from the nearby trashcan that morning.  stuffed and lazy the fish were all asleep and would be for the rest of the afternoon.

after a few hours the angler decided that she just needed to move onto a bigger pond.  those young boys must have been around at night with a flashlight and snatched up all the fish.  packing up her gear and food she got in her truck and drove to the local state park.  renting a blue paddle boat she paddled out to the middle of the glorious lake.  miles wide miles long and miles deep.  from the center she could not see any shoreline.  there were a few other anglers out today but they were few and far between.  she found an area that felt good and set her anchor.

as the anchor fell it smacked directly into a mammoth muskie and a slender sucker out on a first date.  fresh from the show they were starved for something good to chow down on.  the muskie took the bulk of the blow deflecting the sharp point away from the suckers supple body.  with a small gash some bruising and damaged pride the two fish swam away sending word of a nefarious nuisance in the area.

after a little while the angler decided all she needed was a break.  she opened up her lunch box and vigorously ate her sandwich and drank her perrier.  this is the life she thought as she slowly passed out in the mid-day sun.  aquatic dreams overtook her.

some hours after the now infamous anchor incident the chief inspector was perusing the scene of the crime.  he had been staring at the monstrous metallic monolith for sometime now and could not make heads nor tails of it.  he saw where it came from but as always it was a dead end.  what was beyond the surface he may never know.  he had heard tales of what it was like from other fish who claimed they knew someone who had been beyond the surface and made it back.  dubious he thought.

as the angler slept drifting from peak to trough her line began to slowly run away.  with a very soft hiss her well oiled reel slowly spun all the way out until the unlucky fish finally reached the end of the line.  the rod was pulled into the water with a loud splash and the angler woke up with start.  good thing i brought my ronco pocket fisherman for just such an occasion she thought as she swiftly set up her new rig.

this was the final straw for the chief inspector.  he had seen cases of disturbances from beyond the surface all over this lake but this most recent occurrence was unlike anything he had ever seen.  there is currently a team of over ten fish out there collecting all of this tethering cable making sure no more innocent fish get caught up in its wrath he thought as he tapped the slightly buoyant rod that had settled itself into the sand.  well this is useless.  there has got to be more to this he thought as he swam back to the nearby anchor.

until this point the angler had been lazy fishing.  she would cast out and just let the barely weighted hook float around the lake.  with her compact rod she felt the need to be crafty and cunning.  cranking and yanking away she made the helpless worm dance beautifully through the water beneath.  there is no way they can resist this.

what is that the chief inspector thought as he noticed some movement a far ways up from the anchor.  he slowly swam towards the surface.  the movement became clearer and began to create small currents cutting through the water.  the chief inspector was mesmerized and continued to get closer and closer.  just inches away from the furthest bend of the hooks path the chief inspector sneezed and caught his bottom most gill on the sharp hook.

a hit the angler thought as she frantically reeled in her line.  wrestling with the fish she slowly decreased the distance between her and that which she loves most.

this is it.  i will finally know what is beyond the surface the chief inspector thought as he gave up to the force pulling him into the light.

watching the fish through the foot or so of water separating them the angler pulled with all of her might.  the fish shot up into the air tail first and as the line pulled taught from below the muscles surrounding the bottom most gill of the chief inspector were torn in half.

this is what you look like.  you are the demon that has been destroying this lake.  goodbye

...and so she died into it as well.  always a different day and always a different circumstance but you can be assured that the lakes in hell are bespeckled with the bodies of passed fish.  the angler makes sure of that.