June 1992 – Seneca Lake with Keith
It was the middle of a star-filled night and we were lying tummies-down, on a dock, on Seneca Lake, peering into the depths to see the sawbellies.
You and I were newly wed; six months into this adventure and I was pregnant. I could feel the 4-month old, tiny baby bump press into my belly as we stretched out on those cool boards and held our breath, waiting for the sawbellies to swim over and hang out above the flattened dip-net resting silently on the bottom.
You said they made the best bait for the trout we would catch. We were fishing, so we could go fishing. We were having fun; this was a challenge. We had to be quiet and patient. The sawbellies hovered over the net and slowly, gently, you pulled the net up so it was just beneath the tiny fish. AND THEN WITH A MIGHTY JERK you yanked that net up – FAST – out of the water and onto the dock!
The tiny fish flopped about until we tossed them into the bait bucket. We repeated this process many times until you said we had enough sawbellies to satisfy the next day’s fishing. We spent a week on Seneca Lake and each midnight was the same, under the stars, netting little bait fish. I’d never had so much fun, and preferred catching sawbellies to fishing for trout. But mostly I loved getting to know you, in a new and different way, under the stars on Seneca Lake.
