Fishing 101

Fishing is one of the few sports that my young boys have taken a real interest in. I've found that shoving all the "ball" sports down their throats at a young age when they aren't coordinated enough to walk and chew gum yet is like asking your wife if you can get a boat before they are old enough to swim. (I smell another blog with that topic) The idea is entertained only long enough to create visions of them throwing touchdowns and hitting home runs in the bottom of the ninth only to be crushed as soon as a butterfly or roly poly is spotted.

So, fishing it is. My 7 year old was the proud recipient of his very own spinning rod combo on his birthday in January and we finally had nice enough weather to take it out for a test drive. Here I have to give you some backround, on Saturday mornings instead of cartoons all three boys are enthralled with the fishing shows on various outdoor networks. Excellent right? Remember they are 7,6, and 3 so at this age anything seen on television can be duplicated after watching it one time. (Also works the same with my wife and home shows) You merely need watch the 17 minutes of a program minus the commercials and suddenly know more than anyone, especially your father, on any topic under the sun.

Back to the marvelous gift. With the pole he received a low grade tackle box with a few assorted lures and jigs, none of these any serious fisherman would spend two cents on. But here is where being 7 and knowing everything comes into play. He decides that since he saw a show where the host was using a jig to pull out monstrous bass that it's as simple as having your dad tie one on and throwing it in the water.

Now my plan was to take them to a gravel pit close by, because if we don't catch a fish in 20 minutes it's on to the next thing like butterflies and sticks, to catch a few bluegill and get the season started on a positive note. Being the swami of fishing tactics I suggested we tie on a fly and bobber and soon we would be pulling them out hand over fist. No. He is going to use a jig and that is that. OK, waste your time and see if I care.

My 6 year old, still using one of my 2 foot ice fishing rods, can feel the controversy building and decides the fly sounds like a good idea and we hook him up with that. Now I have a control for the experiment and I am ready to gather data.

We arrive at the gravel pit and as I am setting down everyone's tackle boxes, bottles of water, and other necessities my seven year old makes exactly 2 casts and pulls in a bluegill. "Dad I caught one!" he says, and as I congratulate him I ponder how he has beaten the unbelievable odds of such a feat also hoping he won't remember the previous discussion. 7 year olds don't forget...anything. As I'm helping release the prey, I hear a casual, "I told you so." As I fight the urge to sling him and his new pole out into the water I muster up, "Yeah, you did, good job."

Fast forward 45 minutes, time I have alternated between the two boys poles unwinding, unsnagging, and re-stringing lines. The 7 year old says dad i'm tangled and I choose this time to explain one of life's hard lessons, "Part of fishing is taking care of your own gear, there isn't always going to be someone around to help." Pretty deep huh? A life lesson covered with a fishing metaphor. Nice work Dad. I see him sit down and set to work on his tangle. I'll have to admit he worked pretty hard at it because after 10 minutes the tangle was 100 times worse than it had started. Realizing this he sets down the pole and states,"I'm taking a short break." I figure he hasn't quite given up yet so I'll see how it goes.

My six year old's eyes light up like a gambler seeing the strip and casually saunters over to the new pole, tangle and all and picks it up. He notices that there is about 7 feet of line still available before the mother of all knots and proceeds to start dragging the line up and down the shore line. I am taking this break in the action to actually make a few casts myself, and hear the six year old behind me say, "I got one!!" Without turning I say it's probably a snag and he says, "NO, it's a BASS!!" Then I turn and see that he has, against all the rules of mother nature and the fishing gods, somehow landed a 7 inch smallmouth bass.

Now the commotion has gotton the 7 year olds attention and he is on his way over to see what all the noise is about. "Is that a bass dad?" he asks. It sure is I say, what a proud papa, their first bass. Then I hear, "I told you so."

New rod and reel combo $35, fishing license with habitat stamp $30 dollars, kids not restrained with knowledge but an immeasureable ability to belive in one self....Priceless.