Uncle Jim, Fisherman, American

The glorious autumn weather we have been enjoying provided me with an opportunity to fish with two nieces and one nephew in two cool locations on the same weekend..

Thursday was Yom Kippur and the girls had off from school, so sister Tara dropped them down at the dock in Keyport where Uncle Jim was already involved in feeding the fish.

Annie and Megan are delighted to be by the water. There are some other school age kids enjoying a day off down by the bay. While the Jews fast on this day, the fish seem to be following their lead. Oy vey!

Everyone is commenting on the lack of fish so far this fall. Where are the pods of bunker and bluefish we saw at this time last year?

Perhaps the water is still too cold. Maybe it is a brown tide? Many theories are bandied about, but the truth is no one is catching much at all. I'd take a sea robin at this point. Nothing.

Annie says that being skunked stinks. Another of life's riddles is solved in the mind of a child by the sea.

On Saturday, I headed north to Orange County, New York to take my nephew Kevin fishing near the town of Salibury Mills at the beginning of the mountains west of Bear Mountain.

I have been talking with him on the phone recently. Fishing and "Jaws" have been the only topics.

Kevin has become obsessed with the movie "Jaws". This six year old kid knows nearly every line of the film. I was like that 33 years ago when the book and movie came out.

Peter Benchley’s father’s original suggestion for the tile was “What’s That Noshin’ on My Leg?”

I saw the movie Jaws for the first time just before we left L.A. Wow. That changed everything. The ocean that I wanted to know so much about swam into the theaters and into the psyches of every person who has swam in the ocean since.

I’ve now seen that movie more than a hundred times. I still remember the first time I stepped back in the ocean, knowing that I now shared it with things much bigger and infinitely more dangerous than I had dared imagine.

They say that "Jaws" plays somewhere in the world at least once each day of the year. I imagine it causes children to turn to the sea with fascination each time, or it scares them away forever.

Kev is one of the former. I tell him the story of the attacks on the NJ Shore in 1916, which inspired Benchley.

For 12 days, the shark moved up from LBI to Matawan Creek killing four people along the way. The 8 1/2 foot great white shark was finally killed just off Keyport. His eyes widen.

I promise to show him the spots next time he comes down my way, but right now we had to go fishing down at the the local spot.

There is a stillness and serenity around the stream behind Weir's old fashioned ice cream stand (closed for the season). The leaves have just begun to turn on the big trees hangin over the stream and we spot a rowboat with two fishermen coming downstream.

Kev waves. Suddenly, a tug nearly pulls the pole from his other hand. His line darts out as he begins to reel. The smallish, but mighty bass gives him a charge. As we pull it up out of the water it gives a terrific tail splash.

One of the fishermen grunts his jealous approval as Kev does a little dance.

Kev will have the chance to tell this story to people for years to come. Nice to get some catching done after all this fishing!

This uncle stuff is hard work.

Jim Shaffer 10/17/08