If you’re looking for a new hobby to calm your nerves and cope with this pandemic, try fishing. Fishing is a natural stress reliever. Like playing in the water, sitting next to a lake or pond is relaxing. The quiet, rippling water soothes what ails you.

To say that fishing is a pastime is an understatement. You can spend a lot of time fishing and catch nothing. But catching nothing isn’t a waste of time for this pastime.

Fishing is an American hobby, and country folks love fishing.

I know Mom did. And she had a few stories about the one that got away.

In the country, there is often a convenient footpath or road that leads to a lake, fishing hole, or pond for good fishing. Mom’s favorite fishing hole was a pond in a pasture close to our house.

Surrounded by land on all sides, selecting a fishing spot isn’t hard. There is always a scraggly tree bowed over with roots in and out of the water. This was Mom’s spot, and the tree shielded her from the afternoon heat.

Mom could fish eight hours a day, seven days a week, sitting on a bucket’s bottom. This is fishing from the bank or shore, and you’re close to the murky water. There is no fear of a shark attack, but there may be lightning-quick water moccasins.

Sometimes I would go fishing with Mom. But I didn’t like all that waiting. Plus, baiting the hook was a surgical process I cared little for.

With a fishing pole, live bait, and a bobber, she could catch a meal. She loved catching catfish and brim. Earthworms were her live bait of choice. But she also used grasshoppers, crickets, and minnows.

There’s an art to fishing with a cane fishing pole.

How to catch a fish with a cane pole

When the fish nibbles on the bait, raise up the tip of the cane. Raising the cane sets the hook in its mouth. You must either pull the pole inward or continue to raise the pole towards the sky to bring the fish to shore.

Fishing, like many outdoor sports and hobbies, is therapeutic.

Be safe.