I’ve been frustrated at not having any opportunities to do what I normally do in the fall, work shoulder to shoulder with people and spawn salmon. Handling fish and engaging with the people at the hatcheries is pretty much the one thing that gives me some a solid reason for staying employed. And if I can’t do that, then I drop into a pretty deep funk and question my purpose. I’ve been pretty frustrated with a lot of things, and a few people, that are beyond my control lately.
Earlier this week, in an attempt to find an outlet for my need to connect with people and fish, I reached out to someone and asked her if she could help me find a little happiness and joy, and she came through for me. So today I went out and met a little contingent of five others, from three different places, at a little community involvement hatchery an hour from home, and spawned some chum salmon. Two I’ve known for a long time and one of those I have taught, another I’ve met several times, one I’ve only met in the past two weeks, and one was a fresh new smiling face. Three DFO, one Society, and one volunteer from that Society.
It was nice to get fun questions and teach some people everything from different reasons that fish might have a yellowish hue at spawning, point out that that fin behaviour and that muscle shimmer show that you made a really clean hit with a club and disrupted the fish’s nervous system in one good blow, and explain why I threw away those five bags of sperm that were collected from those males. I was asked questions about everything from giving roe to fishermen who might take it elsewhere and what risks that might have, to why it’s difficult to disinfect felt bottomed wader boots, to who does matrix spawning and how.
It was nice to feel needed, it was nice to feel valued, and it was nice to feel that there were no hidden agendas and no ulterior motives in having been asked if I wanted to help out. There were no politics, no pressures, no one “wanted something” from me, no one was looking for meetings.
It was just six people pulling fish out of a trap, on the edge of a local river, with the odd eagle flying overhead, on a cold and sunny day with a bright blue sky, even though we were in the shade until we were packing up to leave. But it was a crisp day and I love those days.
And I needed that. Desperately. I need more of that….equally desperately.
The shots?
Ah, as I parked and got out of my truck I looked down and saw a little patch of mushrooms covered in frost.
I just thought they were pretty.
