Journal of a Minnesota Angler

After a somewhat productive Saturday morning, my 6 year old son wanted to join me in fishing. Up until now he only play-fished by casting off the dock with a casting plug that came with his Spiderman rod and reel set. I thought it was time for him to throw a real lure. So I hooked him up with a scum frog. The hooks are somewhat protected so there would be less of a chance of him hooking into someone and it would also be less likely he hook into a weed where someone (me) would have to get him loose. The protected hooks also accounted for the delayed hook set I would expect he would have.

Early afternoon, we took the canoe out from about 1:00 – 2:30. We went across the lake to a bay that kept us out of the ~10mph wind. The only action of note was a boil that surfaced right where my bubble gum fluke was supposed to be. I set the hook and felt a fish, but it took the hook out of its mouth and hooked it on a weed instead. For years, I’ve been after a fish in that very set of lilly pads. He eluded me again.

After we got in, I took a little nap and at 4:00, my son wanted to go out in the canoe again. This time, he didn’t want a surface lure, so I tied on a texas-rigged speed craw. Again, the protected hook offered many advantages for the young lad, and me. We were out for about an hour when I heard an, “oops” and watched as the Spiderman rod and reel disappeared to the bottom of the lake. My son was very dejected, but never had any tears. I was very proud of him for handling the mistake so well. As we got off the lake to make our way to town, he remarked that when he grows up he’s going to invent a fishing rod that floats. It was very cool that he was thinking about other kids. In, town, we bought a Transformer BumbleBee rod and reel set that made him feel whole again.

After dinner, we once again hit the lake. Again, there was only one bit of excitement. As we were tossing our last casts of the night, my son was reeling in his speed craw when I heard a splash just 3 feet from the canoe. When I realized it was a fish after his speed craw, I turned to see my son pull his rod up in an attempt to set the hook (I couldn’t believe he remembered my lesson). As I moved to help him, the line went slack. His fish was gone.

I checked out the speed craw and the hook didn’t come out of the body of the craw. Either the fish didn’t bite hard enough, or my son didn’t set the hook hard enough. While he didn’t pull in his first fish, I was very proud of him for not panicking. He said later that when the fish it, he felt like he feels when he’s scared. A very astute young man.

We packed it in at 9:30 and called it a night. After some Dutch Apple pie ala mode, of course.

Overall, a very fun day of father-son fishing. I love that my son likes to be out on the dock or on the boat just casting. He doesn’t care if he catches any fish. He’s on his way to be a much better fisherman than his old man.