Crab Fishing, Fish Fishing and Getting The Creativity Done!

Today was a wonderful day. The sun was shining, there was very little wind and it felt almost as if summer had come. A good day for not doing any work and being with the kids

Now, I can write a long list of all the things I can do. Let's just say I've picked up various skills here and there, legal and otherwise. But one thing that I have not yet learned to do is drive a boat. I mean, it looks pretty easy, especially if one takes it slow. And considering all the other vehicles I can drive, legally and otherwise, it shouldn't take me long to learn. But in the meantime I need to wait for my husband to give me a lesson or two.

And since my brother-in-law was using the boat with his family in the beginning of the day, I spent the day crab fishing with my children.


We had help from one of the bigger cousins, who was also waiting his turn to use the boat. Here my son is given a lesson on how to bait the crab-fishing-pole. Yes, in Norway you can buy fishing poles made just for fishing crabs. I have yet to hear of anyone actually catching a crab this way. Instead it appears that this is a fun way to give all the smaller fish in the area a free lunch. Which is much more exciting for my kids anyway. If an actual large crab appeared, I'm sure it would monsterously terrifying to both of them.

The first thing you need to do is find some sort of shell animals. When I do this, I tend to go hunting for mussels. In this case, my nephew has chosen to use those cone shaped shellfish that glue themselves to large bouders. Then you take the nearest available rock and in proper primitive, neanderthal style, you smash the living daylights out of it.

And then you squish the flesh between the clothes peg that is found at the end of the fishing line.

Point number one: I do not know why clothes pegs are used instead of fishing hooks. Having said this, I don't see how either do a good job in actually catching crabs. If of course we continue to work with the theory that this is crab fishing and not simply providing free meals for underpriviledged fish.

Point number two: My nephew has a bandage on his hand because he cut it badly the previous week during a scouting adventure in the forests of Norway.

And then you bend over the edge of the dock and you wait.......

And you wait......

And you wait....

Finally my nephew, being as clever as he is, decides to find some super small fish hooks and re-ties the fishing lines. After another 30 minutes the result is this:

A makeshift aquarium of three small fish who thought they were getting a free lunch and a lot of shrimp that just got in the way.

But low and behold, my brother-in-law and family come back from their boat trip early than expected (he actually hates fish and is relieved every time they come back without fish - we secretly think he visits the places where everyone knows you can't find fish) and my mother-in-law gives me the elbow and suggests that we take the boat out.

You can imagine the the kids are filled with glee.

Now, for the little bit of complaining that I do, I really do have a pretty cool mother-in-law. My kids adore her, and she is absolutely a super cool mor-mor (grandmother).

Knowing that my kids are still small enough to think our boat is a true racing boat, she hits the throttle and roars around in circles on the water.

Who's not having fun here?

Soon enough we go to a good fishing spot and start our gamble with the sea.

Who's not having fun?

Almost immediately my son gets a fish. This was great for him and now we have dinner for tomorrow night.

This was however the only fish that we caught in 45 minutes, though we did get 2 strong nibbles that bend the rods, and got stuck on the bottom 3 times.

And for my fellow members of the European Etsy Street Team, I have actually been completeing some projects! (We can't just be having fun all the time, can we?) :) I was able to complete this during my afternoon coffee. It will be up in my store next week.

I definitely can't wait to get back here next weekend.