Dirty Fish and a Murder

A whole new world has opened up for me. Since I consider myself retired I started doing what retired people do. I go out for lunch with the girls, I shop, go out of town during the week and go fishing.

Bebe and I fish on the Detroit River. Why? Because I have no idea where else to go. The river is huge and has a variety of fish. The only fish I will eat is whitefish, salmon and tuna. There aren't any of those fish in the Detroit River and if there was I don't think I would eat it.

The river is dirty. On the surface of the river you will see an occasional couch cushion, beer bottle, lots of oil and a random shoe or McDonalds french fry container. In some places the water stinks. Not a nice fresh fish smell but an odor you can't describe. When you get a whiff you pack up and relocate. This isn't odd. All the fishermen/women know about it.

I've been fishing since about June and til this day have only caught one fish that was pretty small and I threw him back because first of all there is a regulation on the size you can keep and second of all it's mean.

It's fun to go down to the shore and talk to the other fisherpeople. Everyone is there for one reason and it's nice to swap fishing stories and just chit chat while waiting for a catch.

My first fishing excursion was when I was a young girl. A neighborhood dad Mr. Milstein used to take me to Kensington Beach and we'd get in a boat and sit out there and have a good ole time. Later in life my Papa took me fishing and we would have a blast. Since none of these fine men are in my life anymore I decided I would have a go at it myself.

It's so relaxing sitting there, watching the water and not caring if you catch anything or not.

What happened during one of my fishing trips is why I'm writing this. When you go fishing on a hot day you can bet you won't catch anything. The fish stay at the bottom and unless you have expert equiptment, nice bright real dyed green neon worm. IF you don't have those things you might at well stay home. I always manage to get a green neon worm from one of the guys out there. Anyway...there was a whole group of people along with their kids fishing where I would normally fish. They were nice, we exchanged hello's and I started to do my thing. After a good 30 minutes of hearing the mom of the kids tell them to "sit the fuck down," "shut the hell up" and telling the young boy to "piss by the tree" I had enough. I started packing up my things when all of a sudden I heard the woman scream "HELP!" and she was laughing. She had a bite on her line. The man in the group started helping her. They pulled out a HUGE fish. I was so impressed but very jealous. How in the world could these people catch a fish? They were loud. I thought fish would have swam away from them. So, they held the fish up for us all to see. I've never seen a fish like that before and being in the Detroit River who knows what it could have been but I asked and the guy said "Sheephead." I never heard of a sheephead fish before but took his word for it. He asked me if I wanted it. I though he was joking and said no. He told me you couldn't eat that kind of fish and I told him I wouldn't eat any kind of fish from the river even if I caught it in a can with a picture of Charlie on it. What he did next made me so mad. He beat the fish to death with his fishing net. The fish curled up and he threw the fish back in the water.

I cried for the fish, I cried for the people and I cried for those kids. I never went to that fishing spot ever again. I have a new place that I go to with nice retired old people that offer Bebe Vienna Sausages and they play with him. If I ever see those murderers again I will be sure to give them a piece of my mind...well maybe not.