Took the neighborhood boys fishing last week! This summer as I am cleaning out the boat in the driveway a couple of brothers, elementary age kids, have taken an interest in what I was doing. They come over and play with the dog then hop on the boat to look at what lures I’ve been using and help them to discarded plastics.
Easton, the older fourth grader is a really smart kid and spends a lot of time learning about different fishing lures and techniques. He talks a blue streak about different fish and how to catch them. So of course the conversation comes around to when was I going to take them fishing? Well, you can’t hold that one off forever so last week I went and talked to dad and we decide to go on Friday.
Then the decision comes as to where to go. I didn’t want to do the bluegill thing and reading forum reports it seemed like the upper end of Pool two wouldn’t be a bad choice. It’s been years since I’d been up there fishing and as I didn’t have high expectations I thought a boat ride from South St. Paul would be fun.
We put in, headed up river and started by trolling some riprap. We found a couple of willing sheepies and one very small walleye. The kids were so stoked that I thought at least that mission was accomplished.
We head up to the confluence and began trolling without success. But I started to speed up a little which made all the difference and we caught a lot of walleye and smallmouth. The kids were so thrilled and both did a really nice job. I could coach both of them and they listened! Go figure! Meanwhile dad puts on a tube jig and begins pitching the shoreline where he caught three very nice sized smallmouth. So I got the kids fishing, dads dialed in and I was getting tired!
“Its time to go”. So we head back down river and the boys were talking up what great day they had. Easton regaled me with stories about his day. I asked them if they wanted to try to catch a big fish! Both agreed so before we hit the boat landing I decided to troll some riprap a little more. Before we got started I mentioned that sometimes you catch catfish trolling in this area so both boys put out their cranks and started chanting: “Here kitty-Kitty. My pole double over and after a nice fight I land a 6-pound catfish that really got their attention. So on this one spot it seemed like the boys were either hooking up with bottom or getting hit. I couldn’t tell so the next time through I went out three feet further on my run and sped up just a little,
Easton yells, “I got one”. He was so excited that I couldn’t get him to slow down his retrieve. Instead of slowing down he keeps reeling up. Dad put the net in the water, lands the fish, we look and find out it’s a 26-inch walleye. Man, were we excited. After taking pictures he released the fish and we went home. So today we were talking to another neighbor who knows the boys and he told me about Easton going on and on about his great fishing adventure!
It this age of disquiet it is a nice feeling to know that the actions you take make a lasting difference in others.
