2020-2021 Youth Writing Contest Winner – Junior Category – Maine (Grades 6–8)
Fishing with My Grampy and His Friend John
Gabe Torberg, Grade 6, Massabesic Middle School
So one day I was at my grandparent’s house and my Grampy said, “Do you want to go fishing?” I said, “Heck, YES!”
Then we packed up, grabbed our bathing suits, hopped in the truck, and we headed off to my Aunt Beth’s. She had a motorboat that she let us use. We picked up my grandfather’s friend John and we went fishing! We trolled around and then REEEEEEEE!!! OH, I GOT ONE!! I started pulling and reeling. I saw it was a pickerel.
I got it into the boat, and it was all bloody. One of the gills was injured. We let the thing go, and then we saw a bigger pickerel eat the smaller one! Then we saw a huge swarm of eagles and it was so cool!
Then we had lunch – my Grammy had packed us sandwiches, and they were some good turkey sandwiches! She also packed us S’mores cookies. I ate all of the cookies! My Grampy said, “GABE – YOU ATE ALL OF THE COOKIES! I said, “YES, I am so sorry, but they are cookies!”
We started fishing again, and my Grampy’s friend hucked his line into a tree and it got caught. He had some vulgar language (p.s. do not swear at home, kids – you will get into a lot of trouble).
Then …. REEEEEEEEEE!! I GOT ANOTHER ONE!!!! I kept reeling and reeling and reeling. I caught a huge bass! It had my lure into its throat. It was a very sad moment, the fish died and that was sad, but that is how life works. You just got to move on from when something has died. I was so proud of myself for how I handled it.
Then I saw something in the water, and it was … an OTTER!
“GRAMPY! GRAMPY!” He took a picture of it on his phone. That was cool!
Then Grampy’s pole went … REEEEEEEEE! RRREEEEEE!! “Go Grampy! WOOOOOO!!” He caught a tiny perch. It was so funny because it was a huge fight for him! John and I were laughing so hard.
John kept casting and he kept losing lures in trees. It was so annoying. Grampy and I whispered “Why, Grampy, why? Why did you bring him along?”
We had some diet coke! My Mumma would not approve, but that’s part of the fun of Grampy’s! We drove the boat back to Aunt Beth’s and we went swimming at the dock. It was cool because I got a tiny minnow with my hand. I fished for sunfish. It was epic and it was so much fun! Aunt Beth had a rope swing, and that was so much fun, too. We headed home and we told my Grammy everything. She couldn’t believe I ate all the cookies! It was a cool experience to go on an adventure.
