Sometimes They Bite and Sometimes They Don’t

June 28, 2026

My brother and I have gone fishing quite a bit this spring and early summer. We have fished several places on Kentucky Lake, as well as the Cumberland, Stones, and Duck Rivers. The one thing that all of these bodies of water have in common is that they all still have plenty of fish in them! I caught 5 catfish one day early this spring. Other than that, one good day, while we spent a lot of time fishing, we spent precious little time catching. I told John, my brother, that I didn’t know what else to do. We tried fishing shallow with a float (bobber for you Yankees), and on the bottom with egg sinkers, and we just couldn’t coax the fish to bite. My brother replied that the only thing he knew we could do was to keep on fishing, because you can’t catch fish if your bait is out of the water.  John is nearly as curious about things as I am, so when he got home, he Googled why the fish weren’t biting as well in Middle Tennessee this spring as they usually do. He found out that the Mayfly hatch was extraordinarily large this year, so the fish were getting full of Mayflies and weren’t as hungry. When he told me this, I gave a very thoughtful and intelligent reply and said, “Huh.” So, I guess we’ll just keep on fishing and hope that the fish get tired of eating Mayflies. All of this talk about fishing has me pondering a statement Jesus made to Peter. While Peter was cleaning his fishing nets, Jesus told him, “Follow me and I will make you a fisherman of people.” I wonder if Peter ever had to deal with Mayflies? Anyway, we too have been called to be fishermen of people. Just like John and I have had to deal with the Mayflies keeping the fish from biting, sometimes Satan puts things in front of the “fish” we are trying to catch that keep them from being interested in spiritual things. When the fish aren’t biting, after trying all you know to do to get them to bite, pray for God’s help (we should do that before we go fishing as well), and then just keep on fishing.

Be blessed and then go be a blessing . . . Bro Andy