08-10-2015, 09:59 PM
I had my oldest son and his family in town and his 4 year old Luke wanted to go fishing. He loves playing with his pretend fishing pole and catching fish but he wanted to try the real thing. We loaded up the boat and headed for Lincoln Beach. I had a spot in mind where I thought we might find some pan fish about the right size for the little guy. We agreed to go at 10 AM because they are not early risers, but we didn’t reach the ramp until 12:30 PM.
Water in the channel was just shy of 2 feet deep and my skeg nicked a rock about 2/3 of the way out of the channel. No damage to anything, but even with my 16 foot Aluminum boat, things are getting skinny! Next time I’ll trim it as shallow as I can.
When we got outside the no wake buoys and I tried to go. My 60 HP Bigfoot sputtered up to 2k RPM and that was all she would do. Then I started to smell gas and I knew I had a carburetor spilling gas. I wasn’t going to make the 5 mile run I had planned to. I had an appointment with the Doctor @ 3 PM so we didn’t have much time. It was the heat of the day in August and I was stuck in shallow water with nothing but a trolling motor. I didn’t want to bet on the wind not coming up so I knew I had to stay close to the launch. I asked the Ole Lord for just one fish for Luke and started slow dragging shrimp and cut bait in case there was a cat sun bathing in the shallows. I didn’t have a lot of hope.
About 45 minutes into the seemingly futile exercise we got a hit a chunk of chub meet. One solid thump and nothing. I reeled in to check the bait and to my huge disappointment there was a chub scale impaled on the point of the hook. We weren’t going to hook a fish that way! We zigzagged from 5’ to 2’ for another hour and Luke was starting to say “I want to go home.” “Don’t you want to catch a fish?” his dad asked, “We can’t catch a fish if we go home.”
A little East on the slough mouth in 2.5 feet of water it happened. The rod with the chub meet on it just doubled over and a good cat started thrashing its tail in the shallow water. I sat Luke on my lap and showed him how to grip the road and turn the handle. After a few minutes of tugging and grunting we got it in the net. A channel about 2 feet and just shy of 4 pounds. My grandson’s first fishing trip probably won’t be his last.
Sometimes just one catfish is enough to make a great day on the water! Thanks!
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Water in the channel was just shy of 2 feet deep and my skeg nicked a rock about 2/3 of the way out of the channel. No damage to anything, but even with my 16 foot Aluminum boat, things are getting skinny! Next time I’ll trim it as shallow as I can.
When we got outside the no wake buoys and I tried to go. My 60 HP Bigfoot sputtered up to 2k RPM and that was all she would do. Then I started to smell gas and I knew I had a carburetor spilling gas. I wasn’t going to make the 5 mile run I had planned to. I had an appointment with the Doctor @ 3 PM so we didn’t have much time. It was the heat of the day in August and I was stuck in shallow water with nothing but a trolling motor. I didn’t want to bet on the wind not coming up so I knew I had to stay close to the launch. I asked the Ole Lord for just one fish for Luke and started slow dragging shrimp and cut bait in case there was a cat sun bathing in the shallows. I didn’t have a lot of hope.
About 45 minutes into the seemingly futile exercise we got a hit a chunk of chub meet. One solid thump and nothing. I reeled in to check the bait and to my huge disappointment there was a chub scale impaled on the point of the hook. We weren’t going to hook a fish that way! We zigzagged from 5’ to 2’ for another hour and Luke was starting to say “I want to go home.” “Don’t you want to catch a fish?” his dad asked, “We can’t catch a fish if we go home.”
A little East on the slough mouth in 2.5 feet of water it happened. The rod with the chub meet on it just doubled over and a good cat started thrashing its tail in the shallow water. I sat Luke on my lap and showed him how to grip the road and turn the handle. After a few minutes of tugging and grunting we got it in the net. A channel about 2 feet and just shy of 4 pounds. My grandson’s first fishing trip probably won’t be his last.
Sometimes just one catfish is enough to make a great day on the water! Thanks!
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will come on his face as a distant memory comes to mind: four years old, sitting on grandpa's lap and reeling in his first fish.
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