M Bowlan 2003 click to enlarge
One of our Koi after the chaos

We have a small fish pond in our back yard that we keep a number of goldfish and koi in over the Summer. The pond is only a couple feet deep and with it being near the end of October, Winter is coming quickly. The fish need to be caught and taken inside to their ninety gallon aquarium as they can't survive outside over the Winter. It all started one night around 6:00 (now dark) a week or so ago, when I decided it was a nice evening to "go fising" in our pond for the fish and to bring them inside. I catch them at night with my large 1,000 watt flood lights shining down into the water. I can see the fish as plain as day, and they can't see me as well. Even with this advantage plus armed with a five gallon bucket and a ten inch net, I usually have a hard time catching them. This particular evening, I had a pretty good catch having caught all but one goldfish within thirty minutes and then decided to take a break taking the fish inside to let them adjust to the warmer temperature of the house. I would come back and catch the last fish later...

Once into the house, I placed the bucket on the kitchen floor and called for the boys to come and see them. It didn't take long for the herd of elephants to come roaring into the kitchen to see the fish. Chandler and Connor were pretty excited about seeing the pretty colored fish and how large they had grown over the summer (now 5-7" inches in length). We all sat down around the bucket inspecting and talking about them. After some discussion, I announced to the boys that I was going back out to the pond to get the last fish, and could you please look after the ones in the bucket. They eagerly agreed to the responsibility and smiled as I walked out the door...