Son Gets His PB - No Longer Stubborn :)

[Koz]

Recently I posted about trying to help my soon to be 12 year old son get his PB and how he can be a bit stubborn at times. The post was all in fone, but the quest to help him get his PB is real. What started off poorly for him yesterday ended up being a great day.

 

My son had a half day of school yesterday and to celebrate that time off he wanted to go to the ballpark and work on some pitching for a while and then go fishing. But as we're about to leave he tells me, "Daddy, I think I left my pole at the lagoon last week." Dad is not happy. I just bought him a new reel a few weeks ago. We fished with friends last week and in between fishing and the kids goofing off he forgot his gear. So after his bullpen session we head back to the lagoon and sure enough his rod and reel are gone. Lucky for him he does chores for a number of our elder neighbors and he has the money to buy his own replacement.

 

In the meantime, I give him my Pflueger President /Ugly Stick combo to fish with and this time he immediately puts on the spinner bait I told him to fish with the other week. On his fourth cast of the day he gets a strike and he can tell it's not like any fish he's hooked before.

 

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!"

 

"I've got one! I've got one! A BIG one!"

 

At this point the fish is really fighting and he's having a hard time reeling it in. Now a little panic starts to set in.

 

"I don't want to lose it! Daddy, Can you help?"

 

He's got to learn to land his own big fish so I tell him to take his time and keep tension on the line. I know there's 50 pound braid on the reel because I had been using that rod for frogging. He gets it close enough to shore where he can get a fleeting glimpse of the fish in the stained water. His eyes get real big as the fish tries to run parallel to the shoreline and then tries to dart back to the deep but he keeps the tension on and the fish has nowhere to go.

 

Unfortunately for us, our net broke earlier in the summer and I have not replaced it yet so now Matt has to land this fish on the bank without a net. He gets the fish near the bank and steps forward to try and grab it - the line slacks. For a fleeting moment that fish must have thought it found freedom and it picked up speed and breached the surface almost coming eye level with my son at the shoreline.

 

"She's a HAWWWWWGGGG!!!" he yelled.

 

Thankfully he had set the hook deep and he landed his personal best. The look on his face (and probably mine, too) was priceless. It weighed in at 5.8 pounds and as he pointed out right away that was 0.05 pounds better than my biggest catch this summer. He once again declared himself the "Fishing Champion". That's OK, I'm happy to turn over my title to him. For me, this is what fishing is all about.

 

[68camaro]

Dang he looks happy, and great story. Great to see him catch one over five pounds, I haven't yet:(

[Darren.]

That's a fantastic catch for the young laddie! Congrats!

[Dwight Hottle]

Looks like he successfully learned his lesson. Congrats to you both. 

[JustJames]

He is a handsome young man and with that hawg and that smikr he is even more handsome. Congrat man

[Bankbeater]

That bass is huge! Congrats!

[keltonz]

Awesome story, thanks for sharing - congrats on the PB kid!

[tcal4404]

Great story, thanks for sharing - congrats to your son!

[Bass Turd]

Excellent lessons that day dad. From one father to another you did a great job.... having him face the natural consequences of his actions ie paying for his own gear he lost. That one lesson will serve him well for his whole life. And he already knows how to hold a big fish for the picture!!