Teaching Addy to fish and subsequent emails ;-))

Last week we had this emergency email from our "oldest" god-kid, 10 year old Addison.

He said that he was off to Hong Kong with his family in a few days and that Adam, his dad, had organized a trip on a fishing boat for them because he (Addy) wants to learn to fish. However, he has never fished before and nor has Dad, so the gist of it was "could you please come and teach me how to fish before I go?".

Of course, yesterday on our off day, we went to the A-Family so I could teach Addy how to fish. These are the photos as taken by Mau.

At first we were treated to what Anna, Addy and Anson's mom, believes is a South African meal ;-)). Pasta and home-cooked tomato sauce (as taught to her by Mauro), pizzas from Pizza Hut and hard to find, expensive lamb chops (prepared as taught to her by me when they visited us in South Africa) . 

Then we got down to the serious stuff. The 1st thing was to teach Addy how to set up his rod, align the eyes, thread the gut and then also how to tie loops for adding sinkers and hooks. This we did in the comfort of an air-conditioned apartment.

After this we went outside (and I forgot to put on my slops so for the next 2 hours the very, very hot bricks underfoot had me dancing around). First thing was to show him how to release the reel and then how to cast without getting a crow's nest ... note how attentive he is. What an inquisitive, quick mind he has.

He thought I was the superstar for being able to cast the line (weighed down with a nail clipper for he did not have sinkers yet, but did buy some today, as you will see below).

Within ten minutes his young mind had it sussed, he had the rod in his hands and he was casting his own line into the gold fish pond outside their apartment ... and enjoying every second of it. For the next one hour and 50 minutes, with me hopping and dancing around in the background, sweat pouring off the both of us, he cast and cast and cast and cast and .....  !!!!!!.

Finally we got back to the aircon! Mom Anna had cold, refreshing and sweet as only in China watermelon and dragon fruit set out to beat back the terrible heat. Then the boys got onto Google Earth and flew around the planet in seconds, visiting Hong Kong, New York, London, South Africa and Varanasi in India where we are going in 5 weeks.

Upon us leaving, I left instructions with him and dad to go and buy stronger gut, heavier sinkers and bigger hooks with a barb today.

Subsequent to the last paragraph, these are the emails we have had from Addy today. These should give you an insight to it all. (Do take note that Addy has this thing of using "me" for "I" ... something fashionable amongst his peers at the moment so for now we are accepting and playing to it).

From Addy:

I bought gut, a hook and a sinker today but….. Me don’t know how to change it. Do u un rap all the gut and get a new one on there or what me don’t know!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!

Addison

From Mau to Addy:

 Hi Addy!

Me spoke to Uncle Jay and him is typing this answer for you ... over to he. Him is speaking now!

1.Take all the old gut off the reel. Throw it away. Now your reel is empty.
2. Take the end of the new gut on the spool and tie it very tightly around your empty reel.
3. Ask your dad to put a chopstick through the hole in the spool and hold the spool for you ... but he must hold the spool TIGHT so there is no loose gut (you wanna get the gut as tightly as possible onto your reel otherwise you will have the problem we had yesterday with gut going into the bottom of your reel).
4. You now reel the gut TIGHTLY onto your empty reel ... your dad holds the spool on the chopstick tight and you hold the gut as tightly as possible with your finger when reeling it on . MAKE SURE IT IS TIGHT ;-)))))

Then you go get on that boat and you go catch your fish and you BBQ it .... and remember NOT to say "Yuck" at anything - not at blood, not at snotty fish, not at killing the fish. Be a brave boy and just say "Yuck" inside your head!!!

Love
Uncle Jay

Hi Uncle Jay,

I have got the new gut on the reel!!>  YEAY!!!!

Ok me won’t say YUCK.

Love

Addison

P.S. is 4 one KG sinker enough??

From me to him

Hi My Boy

Me is very proud of you for getting the gut onto the reel. You are SUPER!!

Now, surely you do not mean that your sinkers are 1kg each??? One kilogram is 1 000 grams. A kilogram is about as heavy as  your computer / 4 of your shoes /  5 pizzas. Maybe you meant 100 grams (1/10th of a kilogram)?

You will not be able to cast 1 kg, my boy, and I have never heard of a 1kg sinker before  ......also, me thinks 1kg will break your rod into 25 (or maybe 35)  pieces ......  but if it REALLY is one kg, just drop it into the water ...  hold on tight so you do not fall into the water too ..... and use one only at a time ;-))))).

Have fun, empty the sea, BBQ them all and take loads of photos and email them to us.

Love

Uncle Jay

Ten minutes ago from him to me:

Hi Uncle Jay,

I don’t know it says it is 20 lb so....

yea

Love,

Addison

and my response to him:

Aaaaaahhhh, now I understand, young man.

That means the gut can hold a fish of 20 pounds (not kilograms) without breaking.  Twenty pounds is about 9 kilograms, meaning about 9 of your computers or about 1/5th of you.

If the fish is heavier than 9 computers, the line MAY break and it may swim away with your lovely food.

A 9kg fish will feed all of you: mom, dad, you and Anson and will still have enough left for little fatty Anson AND big fatty Uncle Jay to eat for 4 more more days, so that might be quite a good fish

I think the gut you now have is strong enough ... unless you catch a shark or a whale!!

Love you lots

Uncle Jay