Three Small Fishes and A Prayer! by Bob Alexander

God always has a plan for us, even when we're fishing. Last week my brother and I went to the lake. The day was beautiful; not too hot and with enough of a breeze to soften the intensity of the sun. This is the time of the year when the blue gill bream are bedding in area lakes. By 8:00 a.m. we were trolling along the banks of Guntersville Lake, close to Scottsboro, Alabama, searching for spawning blue gills.

Blue gills are fairly easy to find. They spawn in the spring, usually around the middle of May and they do so in fairly shallow water. We'd find them by locating their beds on the bottom of the lake. They weren't hard to spot. The fish sweep out a platter sized oval in the sandy mud. The females lay their eggs and then the males guard them for a period of time. Most of the fish we would catch would be males guarding the nests.

We bought 200 crickets at the gas station/convenience store/ tackle store and grill across from the public boat ramp. In past few years we've caught a lot of blue gills and shell crackers in the backwaters of the Tennessee River. The spawning fish usually bed close to the same places from year to year, depending on the weather. If the weather is warm, they'll be closer to the shore line. If the weather is cooler and it's time to bed, they'll be in slightly deeper. We found our first bream bed in about 3 feet of water.

This is where our part in God's scenario began. We immediately started catching fish. These were exceptionally large bream. By the time the action slowed down, we had caught about 50 keeping hefty fish. We'd been fishing for about two hours and hadn't moved more than 200 yards from the place we launched our boat. We began trolling down the bank and within minutes found another bream bed.

We fished until noon and caught about 50 more fish that we kept, all of them somewhat larger than we caught on the first bed. It was time to call it a day and we started back to the boat ramp with about 50 of the largest bream; the smaller ones we had thrown back as we caught them. On the way to the boat ramp I started regretting catching so many fish. Someone has to clean them.

There were two fishermen on the bank when we pulled into the launch area. We ran the boat up to the dock and as fishermen will, asked them if they had had any luck. Instead of giving me a simple, straight answer he gave me a story.

"We usually catch a lot of fish every time we come here", the older man said. "This time though we only have three small ones. My wife told me that I wouldn't catch anything today, because I invited friends over for a fish fry tonight. I shouldn't have done that! I've been praying that we'll catch enough to feed those people."

Three small fishes and a prayer? How often do you get a chance like that? My brother just had to take advantage of the moment.

He looked at the man who had been talking and said, "Wouldn't it be great if Jesus appeared and turned those three fish into enough to feed five thousand people?"
"It sure would," the fisherman replied. My wife is not going to like it when we show up with no fish, after she's already made hush puppies and all."

"Well, I'm not Jesus," my brother said, "But your fish have just multiplied. We have fifty large bream over there that will probably feed all the folks you have over tonight!"

This fishing trip worked out great for all concerned. My brother and I caught a lot of fish. The two fishermen had all the fish they wanted and we must have been the finger of God because we couldn't image another situation with three small fish, a prayer for more fish, and my brother and me being able to answer that prayer.

We were all happy. How often do you have the chance to multiply 3 small fishes into a large picnic? I told God that He was showing off again and He reminded me that he was still looking over my shoulder.

Author Resource: Bob Alexander is well experienced in outdoor cooking, fishing and leisure living. Bob is also the author and owner of this article. Visit his sites at:
http://www.redfishbob.com
http://www.bluemarlinbob.com

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