For the Fairer Half

Let's admit it: an angler on the bank sometimes gets a bit bored. And
not even at the times when the floats stand as if welded into the frozen
surface of the water. That's no fun either, but the mood is somewhat different. In
your head, like fry in a river current, thoughts dart about: shouldn't I
go looking for caddis larvae, since the fish aren't tempted by worms, maggots or dough; shouldn't I
change spots yet again; shouldn't I try fishing
mid-water once more. Or, finally, shouldn't I just forget the whole thing and pack up the rods. There's no
talk of boredom in a situation like that.
It's another matter when in the keepnet
bream the size of a stove door are heavily turning over, the lake has gone still,
an orange sunset is blazing, and the fish soup is almost ready on the fire. That's when the happy angler
is bursting with the urge to share his peaceful
mood, and not with just anyone, but with his dearest other half. If only he could see
her here, and without words let her feel what she's missing in life,
and indulgently forgive her all her sins against such a wonderful
thing as fishing.
After fishing trips like that, many an angler timidly starts
persuading his wife to come out with him just once, to look at a diving
float, to hold a bending rod in her hands, to hear the faintest sound
of a taut line. He doesn't skimp on promises. He's ready not only to put the worm on the
hook, but also to peel the potatoes without a word of complaint, something that comes so hard
at home.
No true angler would ever
rack his brains inventing a gadget that he'd then spend ages
searching for among his countless essential bits of gear, put on his
fingers, and all for the sake of... using it to put a worm on the
hook, as an American inventor suggests doing.
It's quite
another matter to buy such a rare tool for your lady friend, to
spare her delicate little fingers not only the danger of getting pricked by the hook, but
also contact with the worm. It's precisely the latter that is one of the reasons
for the female sex's dismissive attitude toward fishing.
Unfortunately,
the device can't spare a delicate female nature from contemplating
such an unaesthetic sight. So, most likely, the angler who
has got his wife into fishing will have to do this
operation himself, the old-fashioned way.