Take a Kid Fishing

Saturday our walleye group had a kid’s fishing day on the lake.  We took groups of young kids out in boats, teaching them the art of walleye fishing.   Mr M declined an invitation to this event and went to JD’s softball tourney instead.  So I was paired with another local fisherman and we took out two young brothers.  This is how it went:

We unloaded the boat and I was to hold it at the dock while fisherman parked the trailer.  Well his boat is much heavier than ours and as I casually let it drift backwards from the dock before trying to pull it to the other side I nearly ended up in the lake as it didn’t stop like ours does.  But, I was able to get it in control with only a small rope burn to my fingers.  The sad part is the local news lady was standing there watching and said she wished she would have had her camera ready, because she thought I was going in! hehe

Everyone on board and off we go to the secret fishing spot.  As we get the poles and bait ready, fisherman asks the boys, have you ever fished before?  oh sure, we fish at Homerun Pond all the time.  So I ask, have you ever fished from a boat before?  oh sure, I fell out says one of them.  (oh boy!)  Water saftey talk now, not later (check)

Then we showed the different kinds of bait we use.  Nightcrawlers, leeches, minnows.  They called the minnows the "little fishies" all day.  They would not touch the bait.

So we show them how to rig the bait.  Fisherman tells me how to hook the minnow.  I laughed at him.  It was probably rude, but come on, I think I can hook my own minnow. 

Ok now we are fishing.  It takes about 15 minutes for the first one to get really booorrreeeddd!!!.  So we talk about how you need patients when you fish.  He doesn’t have any.  We talk about the different kinds of fish, how to tell when the line is on the bottom of the lake, why you shouldn’t stomp in the boat.  On and on we go for nearly an hour.  So we decide to move on to another secret spot. 

We get fishing once again and there are seagulls and pelicans everywhere, so we talk about all the different kinds of birds you see while fishing.  By now the boys have warmed up and begin the questions.  It isn’t long before we catch a fish.  The older of the two gets to reel it in.  It is a big Drum.  He will not hold it, but agrees to stand in front of me pretending to hold it for a picture. Fishy goes back into the lake.

We move on again and now it is my turn to catch a fish.  The younger boy nets it.  It was hilarous.  He hit it 5 times with the net, but eventually we get it into the boat.  This is a lake trout.  Fishy goes back into the lake

By now we are nearly out of time and Fisherman wants to try one more place before the boys are due back in to have dinner.  We fish only about 5 minutes when he has a fish on his line.  Younger brother reels it in and older brother nets it.  They were so excited.  This was a walleye.  The three of them pose for a couple pictures and walleye goes back into the lake.

Oh I forgot to mention that somewhere in the 3 hours we were out they got over their fear of the bait!  They battled for position to see who got to get the next leech out

Fisherman delivered us back to the dock, declining to come to the barbeque, going to do more fishing he said.  I got the boy delivered back to the gathering area, visited with some people quickly and headed back to town to watch the end of JD’s softball tourney.

I’m glad I got back to watch their final game as they beat a team that beat them a couple of weeks ago.  They had lost by 9 runs and Sat bet them by 6.  Good for those girls.