I thought the kids were supposed to make me braver.

So this weekend I took my older daughter fishing again. This time I took her to a favourite spot where we catch a lot of Northern Pike. Actually that is all we catch there. I presume the pike are settled in as cannibals in that lake.

I took her there so she could catch a fish to enter into a fish derby. I was brilliant with the execution up to the point of the first fish being caught.

This was the first time I had ever been the only person capable of removing the hook. Now I openly confess my crippling terror of all things icthus. I do well to deal with this. Heck, I even worked on a Fisheries Patrol Vessel for a summer where, ironically, I spent most of my time fishing.

But never in my life was I required to be the one to remove the hook. I didn't like the idea of putting my fingers that close to something that could only perceive them as food.

I am man enough not to ask my 7 year old daughter to do this more than once. The little chicken refused for some reason.

Pike have the bad combination of narrow mouth, sharp teeth and the ability to swallow hooks. The second cast, a whole 2 minutes after arriving I caught one. I then spent the next 10 minutes failing to remove the hook, succeeding only at bending a barb right off.

I then turned to my lovely, innocent enough child and said "Do you want this fish to live?" Here my little princess, the girl who loves Disney movies and worries about the feelings of the cat, uttered her sister's line "kill it".

What was disturbing at first was realizing this child had the power to sustain or end life and decided the latter with such relish that I now lay awake at work frightened.

What was secondly disturbing was her 30 something father gleefully uttering "yes m'am" as if she had ordered me to exhume bodies for their brains. I'm thinking I may have to rethink this whole "take my kid along to face my greatest fear" plan.

In the end she caught the bigger fish. I'm proud of her, I really am. She even asked to hold it on her lap for the 45 minute drive back. She changed her mind when discovering depite a severe clubbing and 30 minutes out of water that this animal which was half her body length was indeed still alive.

I hope I can get a group rate on counseling.