I May Be Kicked Out Of Minnesota After This Embarrassing Confession

This past weekend my son Charlie and I went to visit my mom (his grandma) at the lake. My mom's brother-in-law Gary was doing some casual fishing on the dock when my four-year-old asked if he could try, too.

Gary said 'of course' and cast the line into the water. When he got a small panfish on the line he handed the rod to Charlie, who proceeded to reel in his first fish ever. It was an awesome moment!

The truth is, Charlie has wanted to go fishing for a while now and I keep putting it off. Why? This is where the confession comes in: I have no idea how to take a fish off the hook.

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Don't get me wrong, I have been fishing my whole life. We used to have a cabin up north years and years ago on the Whitefish Chain, we took trips to Canada, Leech Lake, etc to go fishing and I have caught many fish.

However, my dad has always been kind of... impatient, so he always INSISTED on taking the fish off the hook. Either he was just eager to get his line back in the water or he thought I would get tangled in the net or whatever other reason and I just never really got around to learning how to do it myself.

I know it can't be that hard but I also know there are some fish that bite, some that can poke you with their spines, etc and I don't know which is which.

So I am now filling out citizenship forms to move to Iowa where I belong. There's no place in Minnesota for an imposter like me.