The large boat continued to rock against the majestic turquoise expanse of water. The thick smell that only the ocean could provide was heavy in the air, and the sun's rays were directly above them. They couldn't have asked for a better day to go fishing.
The two pairs of fox and rabbit were positioned on either side of the boat, their focus placed primarily on their fishing rods, anticipating the moment a fish got on one of their lines. A fair amount of time had passed, and nobody managed to at least get a fish to tug onto the bait that they had brought along with them.
"Darn," Nick said under his breath, looking over at Judy. "We've been at it for awhile now and not even a nibble. You don't think all of the fish around here just decided to swim somewhere else on our account, do ya, Fluff?"
The doe, who continued to look out at the deep water, chuckled at his question. "I highly doubt that," she replied. "But I guess Skye was right when she said their luck wasn't the best recently."
"I guess so," the fox agreed. "But like they say, though: It's not all about catching tons and tons of fish in one trip. It's really about your love for the activity itself that matters."
"Do you agree with that?" Judy asked.
Nick shook his head. "No," he admitted, "but it helps to say it yourself when your down on your fishing luck."
"Well, it is gonna matter what kind of fish we catch on this trip," the gray lagomorph to his left remarked. "Don't forget about the bet."
Nick remembered what his bunny was talking about. Judy and Jack were both competitive, and so their fishing excursion, as fate would have it, had a wager tied to it. Whoever managed to catch a larger fish would be the winner of the bet.
Jack had proposed it believing that there was no way it was possible to catch anything in these waters than some smaller fish. Neither him nor Skye had never managed to spot anything big around here, at least. But maybe he would be proven wrong.
The red fox felt something tug at his line multiple times in a row, and he started to reel his line in instinctively. He quickly realized, however, that nothing was on his line. Whatever fish was interested in what he had placed on his hook took his bait from off of it and swam away.
"That little thief," he muttered to himself, propping his fishing pole up so it would stay still while he grabbed another piece of bait. He and Judy both just used regular lures for awhile, but he used some of the fresh bait that had been brought along last time and it managed to attract an interested fish.
"Hey, Nick," Jack said from the opposite end of the boat. "You catch anything yet?"
"No, but just you wait," Nick said back. "Carrots and I are gonna catch the biggest fish in this spot of the ocean."
"You sure about that? 'Cause I didn't see you guys catch anything yet."
"It's a matter of time 'til it happens, Jack. I'll have you know that I am an expert fisher fox."
"Oh, yeah?" Jack asked in response from where he was positioned.
"Yep," Nick called back with a grin on his face. "There was this one time Fin and I were out fishing by some freshwater one time, and I reeled in this large carp. You had to be there to see how big it was."
"Is that so, fox?" the buck responded.
"It's true. I caught a crucian carp 'cause my fishing skills are sharp." Nick laughed at his own pun for a quick moment before returning to his rod, casting it out into the water once again.
He remained still and silent for a few moments, watching patiently to see if anything came over to where his bait had been casted to. About thirty seconds later, however, there was commotion coming from the side of the boat that Jack and Skye were fishing from.
"Yes! We got one!" he could hear Skye exclaiming in delight.
Nick quickly reeled his bait back in and set the rod to his side, turning his head to see what was happening. Jack came running up to where he was standing, and the white-furred vixen accompanying him walked slowly behind him. She carried her rod that had something thin in length wiggling on it.
"There we are," Jack proclaimed with a proud smile. "My Skye caught the first one of the afternoon." He looked over at Skye and said, "You caught a great one, darling."
"Thank you," the arctic vulpine replied with a swish of her tail.
The fish he was talking about wasn't exactly the most impressive one that the ocean could possibly offer. It wasn't colorful by any means, and it was only long enough fit in the vixen's paw.
Nick simply nodded as he looked at what the two had caught, determined to get something bigger. Even if it was only a little bit longer, that would suffice. The bet that Judy and Jack had made with one another didn't have any other rules to it.
The tod returned to what he was doing before as the buck and vixen returned to their side of the boat again. Once he had returned to fishing, Judy grabbed the purple fishing rod that was on the ground beside her.
"Let's try to cast it out again," Judy said to herself.
Jack, meanwhile, started to walk over towards the stern of the boat. When Judy casted the lure on her rod into the water, the striped buck casted whatever was on his rod into the ocean shortly afterwards. For something different, he angled the cast just a little bit to the right rather than than straight ahead.
Judy continued to focus, waiting for the moment she felt something tug at the line. She didn't have to wait too long for that to happen, though; about five seconds later, she felt something but grab onto her hook. Her rod started to bend a little bit, and she started to have a little trouble reeling whatever was on it in.
"Nick," she said, glancing to the right. "I've got something big on the line. I'm gonna need some help over here."
"I'm here to help, Carrots," her fox said as came over to where she was standing. From behind her, he placed his larger paws on top of hers as she tightly held onto the rod. "You need to give the line a little slack, and on three we're gonna pull backward, alright?"
"Okay," Judy replied, nodding her head.
When the time came for the two of them to pull the rod back, the fox and rabbit did so as best as they could. As soon as they did that, they heard a big splash sound come from the stern.
"Jack!" they heard Skye say as she ran over there. "Jack, what happened?"
Nick and Judy continued to pull the rod up, only to realize what was actually on their line. Stuck on the gray doe's hook was Jack's rod, with the buck himself came up from the water shortly afterwards. His paws still appeared to be gripping onto the fishing pole that the doe had reeled in by accident.
"What the-" Nick muttered. "How did that happen?"
The striped lagomorph swam towards the ladder on the side of the boat and climbed back up onto it, his clothes now soaking wet after falling into the ocean.
"I caught a Jack," Judy said.
"And when it comes to fishing, Hopps, you have quite the knack," Skye chimed in as she walked over. She covered her mouth to try and mask the fact that she was giggling over what had occurred.
"I see Nick's rhyming fishing puns are getting to your head," Jack replied jokingly. Despite the fact that he was the subject of the prior mishap, he couldn't help but laugh alongside everyone else. No matter what the circumstances were, laughing was something he always did, and those around him knew that quite well.
"Well," the vixen responded, "you hear enough of them and you end up conjuring some up of your own."
"Our lines must have accidentally got intertwined." The striped rabbit, still dripping with water from head to toe, then started to squirm and cringe.
The others looked at him, wondering what was the matter.
"What's wrong?" the white-furred vulpine to his side asked him.
"I feel something," Jack answered, reaching into his shirt. He withdrew a fish that was a bit longer than the one Skye caught a little bit ago. It wiggled around as he held it in his paws. "Eww..." he muttered.
"Huh," Nick said. "I'll admit, I never saw one that looks like that one before."
In that moment, the lightbulb in Judy's mind lit up. "Wait a minute," she said. "I caught your rod by accident..."
"Yeah?" Jack said in reply.
"And you were still holding onto the rod when you ended up in the water..."
"Uh-huh. What about it?"
"And you had the fish in your shirt that was larger than the one you guys caught. So technically we caught the bigger fish because we caught you. We won the bet!"
Jack could only shake his head. He wasn't sure why he didn't see this coming.