This past weekend, we took our four and a half year old son, Wally to his great uncle’s house on Pardee Lake in Michigan. After a fun filled morning swimming on the lake and a passing afternoon thunderstorm, Aunt Carynn pulled out an old fishing rod from the shed. Once he was shown how to cast the line with a rubber worm, he was off and fishing. With his life jacket secured, he headed out to the boat dock with rod in hand. He spent fifteen minutes calmly casting his line before he caught his first large mouth bass, approximately 8" long. He was so excited holding his fish so everyone could see. I explained to him the importance of dipping the fish back into the water so it could breathe. He then lifted the line out back out so I could unhook the fish and release him for another day.
He ran back to the end of the dock and dropped his line in the water once again. Within a few short moments, he hooked into a nice size blue gill. The smile on his face was worth a thousand words. He continued casting his line as the afternoon sun sunk into the trees behind him. Then the call came, "Dad, I got another one." Sure enough, a small blue gill panicked at the end of his line. I told him to cast the line a few more times and then it would be time to go. As I walked back to my seat, I heard Wally yell “Dad, help me!” The rod was bent in half and Wally was struggling to get the fish under his control. I ran over and looked over the edge of the dock to see a good size fish giving Wally a fight. Before I could do anything the line snapped and the fish was gone, “hook, line and sinker” as they say. What a day!
Two days later, my wife and I took Wally to the sporting goods store to pick out his very own fishing rod and reel along with a starter tackle set. Next weekend, he is headed back to hook the one that got away.
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