I've been robbed

Today I just had to get out and fish.  It was 104 degrees, the wind was blowing enough to send my kayak across the waves at trolling speed, but it had been tooooo long. I didn't care about breeze or burn, I had to fish.  But first I had to find my tackle box. Someone had removed it from my boat. 

Looked in the truck. Nope.

Looked in the barn. Nope.

Looked in the garage. Nope.

Finally found it in a relative's garage, although I'm fairly certain she didn't put it there. 

My tackle box was a gift from Philoboy last Christmas.  Two-sided, filled with wonderful shiny things, one side for the pond, one side for the river. (WOW, a man that gets you exactly what you want for a gift! Not to mention gets you things he'd like to borrow). 

I like to check my tackle box before I get in the middle of the lake. I like to prepare. Preparing and organizing are what I do for relaxation. So I opened the pond side. 

Bobbers, check.  Although not as many as there used to be... Maybe I'll make some earrings from the little guys.

Lures, check.  Although that comet in the middle has seen better days.  But the popper on the right caught my biggest bass to date.

Uh, silver thingy, check.  I have no idea what this is or how to use, but I love it.  It is a piece of modern art.  I really am going to make this into jewelry.

Jigs, check. Yummy yellow sugar frosted jigs.  I keep them because they remind me of lemon cookies. The fish in Kansas do not care for sugar frosted lemon cookies.

This guy is a no biter also.  But they're great to freeze in ice cubes and put in your guests' drinks.

Now these.  These are my mainstays, my go-to red and blue jigs, the proven workhorses of my tacklebox. These are the ones certain fellow fishermen are always begging to 'borrow' from me.  Borrowing jigs is like borrowing toothpaste.  No way is it coming back.

Now the river side of the box.

9-1-1  Somebody call the game warden, I've been robbed.  There's nothing in here! Where's all the sinkers?  The lead lines?  The great assortment of hooks?  This calls for an investigation. 

Philoboy, have you seen my tacklebox?
What tacklebox?
Duh- the one you gave me for Christmas.  Blue, rectangular, used to have a lot of cool stuff in it.
No, haven't seen it.
Have you used it lately?
What do you mean by 'use' exactly?
Did you and Rick go to the river this week?
What river?  Who's Rick?
It's very hard to interrogate a philosopher.

Pushing aside the mystery of the missing filament and habilaments, I fished for a couple of hours. At the end I had a basket full of fish worthy of display in an aquarium.  A five-gallon one.

But you know what they say, a bad day fishing is better than... No, can't do it.  There's no such thing as a bad day fishing.

       By land or by sea, Happy Trails to thee!