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| The boy throwing a CD 3 with Dad's spinning rod. So proud! |
Sometimes the stars align and my 7 (and ¾, he reminds me) year-old son actually asks to go fishing!! I consider today a late Father’s Day gift, although I did manage to drag my wife and son to Bass Pro Shops in Atlantic City last Sunday, so I guess I have had two Father’s Days this year. I have been taking my boy fishing since he was barely 3 years old, which is far too early, I know, but now he is finally able to cast and reel fish in by himself. I have even had him throwing a 6’6” 3 wt fly rod on the front lawn: practice for the future, I hope. But I try not to pressure him to go because I want him to enjoy it and not feel like he’s onboard for an 8 hour Dad trip where we do nothing but fish. Right now, about 2 hours with walking and chasing frogs and bugs is perfect for him. Good weather helps too. We left home at 4:30 PM today, and were back by 7 PM, happy, wet, and dirty. I only bring one rod to insure that he is the focus of the adventure, although I still can get carried away on a good fishing day like today. I have a problem called One More Cast that I try to keep in check when he’s with me!
We had a lot of rain on Saturday, a lot, so the creeks
were up. The gauges looked like they
were coming down quickly, but when I saw the Wissy in person, it was a
chocolate covered mess. We had to slip
and slide into the first spot on the creek, and all we had to show for it was a couple bluegills that hit a trout magnet in a bankside eddy.
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| A fat, feisty rainbow still alive and kicking in late June. |
Trout haven’t been stocked since May, but with a very wet
June, I knew they would still be around and possibly active in the high water
if we could find them. One can only do
so much walking with a small boy in tow, however, so if my next choice of a spot
didn’t work out, we would be changing gears and catching frogs and polliwogs in
no time. Luckily, the next stop was full
of hungry fish.
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| A pretty brown, too, |
We landed 4 nice sized trout, a few more sunnies, and even a couple smallmouth bass in a productive 40
minutes or so. The highlight for both of
us, besides just having fun wet-wading in the muddy water, was my son reaching
a new angling milestone. Today, all own
his own, he cast my spinning rod, with a Rapala CD3 (of course), hooked and
played his own fish, a 10 inch smallie, which Dad happily netted for him. He got to release the bass back in the water,
though. He usually nets and releases my
fish too. He also got a couple lollipops
and still got to chase polliwogs and frogs in the little pond we pass on the
walk back to the car. It was a good day,
the sort that gives me hope that he will start asking to go fishing more often and, like today, I will be in the right state of mind to enjoy it fully.
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| Lollipops, polliwogs, and other adventures to make a boy and dad happy. |
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