Just news from the frozen north!

[Papaballoon]

OK, another  annoying "brag" from the obnoxious Papa Balloon  Warning!  if you don't want to hear about having fun with kids yet again.  Move on to another bit!

that being said, I was at the North Iowa Outdoor sports show in Mason city  IA yesterday for most of the day.  It was a FUN and interesting day.  they had me at the end of the room near the "Fish for real trout" booth, where kids could bait a line and fish for 5 minutes for $3 for a trout in a tank.  I am sort of split on that actually.  I have a fish tank, and I like fish.  I also like to EAT fish.  i like kids and with enough katsup.....oh, no wait wrong idea!  Actually the kids really seemed to have fun, but I can't help thinking it wasn't as much fun for the trout tho!.....DAMN! I have these horrible moral issues about animals...I am not PETA material, but still!

Anyway, I had a fun time (if you ignored the plastic bags wiggling around on the floor!  something about that disturbs me) and saw a LOT of nice kids and enjoyable adults.  Made a LOT of balloons for everybody and made enough money to justify a 12 hour day!  (5 hours driving!  and the rest taken up with fetching and carrying and making balloons!) 

The best part was that the Fair Grounds manager wants me to come back for teh "Cerro Gordo Co. Fair" in Mid July for 3 days and a substantial Fee!  OK!  No problem!  Just don't put me next to the fishing tank this time! (I don't think that will happen honestly!)

Papa

[PrincessTwister]

Good for ya Papa... Thx for sharing...

[roadking]

Papa, when I find you at T&S we're going to have a long talk about fishing!!!!!!!!!

[Shadpoke]

Hi Papa Balloon. Glad to hear you are doing well.  Congrats.

[Papaballoon]

Papa, when I find you at T&S we're going to have a long talk about fishing!!!!!!!!!

Heh!   I don't go fishing much these days, but I LOVE to tie flies (badly!) and I love casting flies!  That is a REAL skill!  (I have a rather nice Diawa fly rod!  and a couple of crappy ones!) but mostly I like "fishing"  I am not particularly into "killing fish", though I will, and have and CAN, but generally I use barbless hooks and they go back into the water with my thanks and prayers for a full recovery so we can have a rematch some day!   But I really DO like fish  I also make some fun balloon fish!  simple ones to be sure...but fun!

Papa

[rutica]

uggh. i know what you mean with catching fish in a tub. sounds cruel.

but i'm glad you had fun. sounds like a nice day.

i just learned how to make a balloon fish here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tRTpJ0Zo94

[Sherm]

At first I thought you meant the game where a kid throws the "fishing line" over the wall of a booth with "real fish inside", and the adult inside clips a small bag of candy to it, before throwing it back over the wall.
We always had those at elementary school "parties." *sigh*

[Papaballoon]

There are SO MANY kinds of Balloon fish.  I make a round and wrap a 260 (a 5 inch round) or TWO (an 11 inch or so) around it.  I make two loop twists at the nozzle to be lips.  Make sure the 260 is/are tight around the round and make a loop tail or just leave the ends out for the tail.  I take a 5 inch white round and make it about 1 or 2 inches and divide that and make a pair of eyes.

My fishing pole is a long piece with a 321 twisted in half as a reel.

I SOMETIMES decorate the fish with gills and scales or even a set of Caudal fins or Pectoral fins  and sometimes I use crosses for eyes!

Oh, and the fish tank??? it was REAL farm raised trout about 12 inches long or so and the kids caught them on simple fishing rigs.

I don't object to fishing I just thought the people running the booth should have dispatched the fish quickly and possibly even cleaned them for the kids rather than have the poor things flopping around in the plastic bags the whole time!

My objection was not the fishing, but the way the caught fish were dealt with afterwards!

Papa