I woke the little guy up at 6 and made the request to go fishing, but the response I got was “I need to sleep for 3 more min”. While the girl is always up for a trip I knew it would only be a matter of minutes for her to get ready, so I hooked up the boat and straightened out the rigs. Knowing I had a limited amount of time I was planning to make the day simple and keep the lines untangled with 2 kids and a puppy in the boat.
After everything was ready I went back for my second request, praying he wouldn’t say no as the deal with mom was if I went fishing I had to take the kids so she could get some things done around the house as well as some shopping.
This time he popped up and got dressed, then I woke the girl, stopped for some snacks to keep them busy and by 9 we were on the water. I wanted to start by looking for some new structure, (new to me) and I decided the plan was to pull cranks in 12-20 ft and keep moving over the ridges for the day to avoid boredom with the little ones. On our pass through the kinny I started marking suspended fish about 10-12 ft down and plenty of them. I decided that was going to be my first spot. Out the rods went and there came the boats, no bites, but after passing 15-20 boats in 10 min I figured I was to late, the boat traffic was heavy and we moved on.
Up river we had a lot better luck and the rods started bending, oh was I thankful, trolling isn’t usually the best idea to keep an 8 and 10 year old interested in fishing but I got to have my cake and eat it to for the next couple hours. We drug in 5 keeper with a 22″ for the girl and a 18″ for the boy, I can’t tell from the photo if it was really that heavy or he was just a little unsure about holding it. It was a record for him but girl still has me beat with a 28 1/2 back when she was 4.
We ended up with 2 very productive hours consisting of 3 sunfish, 2 white bass, 1 drum, 9 walleye, 4 of which had no size. It wasn’t a record day by any stretch but it sure was fun watching these 2 reel in fish for a couple hours.
Once the heat set in it seemed to shut off like a switch, I would say at 11 – 11:30 it was done. I met up with a buddy and let the kids play in the sand, he took the spot over from there but didn’t report anything but heat over the next hour.
River fishing is always fun, but it sure is nice to take the little ones out and have a couple productive hours. The real bonus was the nice walleye mixed in, I felt like I got to have my cake and eat it too for the first time in a long time. And hopefully create some memories they will never forget.
July 15, 2012 at 1:58 pm
#1228950
