March 19, 2017 – Take a Young Boy Fishing – Pickering DHALO with my Son

The mitch-ling scores with midges.

A surefire way to get the boy to agree to do anything outside these days is to promise him additional time on his Nintendo 3DS for every hour he spends in the great out of doors.  We have also had a standing bet that he could earn an hour per fish, up to three hours, if he was able to hook and land his own trout on the fly rod.  Well, he came close to both today.  He delivered a couple decent roll casts from the bank, even swung on a couple hits, and he definitely landed two fish that dad hooked for him.  Because he netted a few more for me, and lost two others at our waderless feet, I gave him the benefit of the doubt!  With waders, I think he could actually do it this year.

A few hot ones too that the boy netted for me and I for him.

After a pizza lunch, we hiked in the melting snow to a couple spots where I have been finding rising fish all winter.  With the run off, the flow was up and the water was pleasantly stained, so a couple fish chased stoneflies, but most were still taking midges below the surface.  Because the water was not as clear as it usually is, fish were not shy about taking midges under an indicator, even a caddis larvae under a bigger thingamabobber was successful on the typically spooky fish of low winter water conditions.

Even wore a buff today...

In an hour of fishing, we had 3 or 4 in the net, hooked a few more, and dropped at least 4 well-played fish as we tried to net them from the bank without getting soaked.  The boy just knows strip! strip! strip! not so much of let the fish take a run if it needs to, so those odds were pretty good, especially with some hot leapers on the line!  The fished stocked in the fall are especially feisty and fat these days.  The best part of the afternoon, however, was that I was able to quit when I promised I would, and he had fun because we ended on a high note and I didn’t push the limits of a good time selfishly trying to catch a dozen more.  The boy also got chocolate milk and candy from the Wawa on the way home.  Bribes?  You bet.  And worth every penny..