Keep Your Worm in the Water


I think Dad held the opinion that the best day at work was still worse than the worst day of fishing. He wanted to spend more time on the water than I did sometimes. One day, the fish just weren't biting. It was hot and humid and there was not a breath of breeze anywhere. We had spent hours fishing without getting so much as a nibble. There weren't even any little perch willing to steal bait. It was the middle of the afternoon and I had had enough fishing for one day. I was hot, sweaty, thirsty, discouraged and utterly pathetic. My hindsite was sore from sitting on boat seats all day. I wanted to go back to camp and go for a swim or play with my pond yacht or just sit in the shade for a while.

Dad didn't want to give up. He kept casting a lure into holes in weed beds, hoping for some luck. Finally, I put my rod down, put my chin in my palm, and watched my hook and bait fry on the bottom of the boat. Dad said to me, “You will never catch anything if you don't keep your worm in the water.” So I sat with my worm in the water and my chin in my palm and we eventually made it back to camp totally skunked for the day.

That remark Dad made turned out to be a good metaphor for many other enterprises than just fishing. Later in life, when things weren't going my way and everything was in shambles, I could almost hear Dad say, “Keep your worm in the water!” And, in most cases it is good advice; soaking your worm is the best you can do.