OH, YE OF LITTLE FAITH, OR, THE LUCKY LURE, THE LUCKY FISH, THE LUCKY FISHERMAN

"Come on, Ama.  Let's go home.  The fish aren't biting today, and I'm tired."

"Why not cast out a few more times?" encouraged Marash Girl.

"Okay, I will.  I wish I had a chair to sit on.  I think I'll walk a bit into the water, and cast out."

Ama stood on the shore of the kettle pond, looking for the red and white float, now probably thirty feet out into the kettle pond.  "Oh, no," she thought.  "Where's that red and white float? We've lost a float.  I thought I had secured it well onto the fishing line.  Luckily we have another one though.   Iffar, where's the float?"  

"Ama, something's pulling on the line!"  

"Oh, no," thought Marash Girl, apparently a girl of little faith.  "Iffar's probably caught the snapping turtle that's been eating all the fish in this pond!  However will we get the turtle off the line?"

"Give the line one slight tug and slowly reel it in."

"Look, Ama, it's a fish!  A big one."

Sure enough --  a fish was on the end of the line . .  a fish about a foot long glided up to the edge of the pond . . . was it a lake trout?.  

"Wow, Iffar, you've caught your first fish!  Good for you!  Now let's see if we can get a photo of it and  release it . . . "  Marash Girl feared that the fish had swallowed the lure -- feared both for the fish AND the lucky lure!  But no . . . Iffar slowly reeled the fish into the shallows near the shore and Marash Girl's prayers were answered -- she was able to remove the hook from the fish's lip without any problem at all, and the fish swam away.

And this, ladies and gentleman, is no fish story!

Iffar's first fish -- it survived to tell the tale. . . 

They say a little boy remembers, for the rest of his life, the very first fish he ever caught. . .