IcatchDinks Posted September 6, 2022 Posted September 6, 2022 (edited) Last weekend (August 26-28) my siblings and our families went camping up near Manistee. I took my younger sister (17 years old) fishing with me a couple times over the course of three days, but we caught nothing. And she didn't come with me on the last day when I hooked into my new PB smallmouth. Somehow inspite of getting skunked three days in a row, she managed to get hooked on the sport anyway. I promised to bring her fishing when we got back home. Fast-forward to memorial day weekend, and I arranged to take her and our younger sister (16 years old) to some of our local ponds. Neither of them had ever caught a fish, and I figured I could at least help them catch some bluegill and hopefully some bass. Sunday morning dawned, chilly and overcast, and I was worried about our chances. Nevertheless, I put together a little tackle box of essentials for the older of my sisters, as she seemed to be real eager to take up the sport long term, and loaded the car with poles and gear The first spot we tried, they caught a handful of bluegill and pumpkinseed, but the bass would not bite. And nothing was biting lures. We had to use live worms almost exclusively. So we switched to a pond I'd only ever fished once before, but had some decent success. After about 20 minutes of fruitless casting, I decide to move around to the other end of the pond. My sisters stayed put. About five minutes later, I hear the younger hollar my name with a tone of frantic excitement. I come running around the stand of pine trees separating us, and see that she's pulled a whopper out of the water and is proudly holding it up, giddy with excitement. Finally, success! About 10 to fifteen minutes later, the older sister hooks into another one, almost the same size. A couple ounces heavier and half an inch shorter: Then my wife got one on a weightless Texas rigged stick bait (she doesn't like holding them, plus this one was bleeding): I had spent most of this time re-rigging rods, untangling line, handling, unhooking, and measuring fish, so I barely had a chance to get a line into the water for myself. I finally made my own contribution: With about a half hour left before we had to head back home, I decided to pull out the whopper plopper so they could hopefully see some top water blowups. Got a few swipes that missed but finally hooked one: It was a wonderful day. There is no greater joy while fishing than to help someone who's new to the sport catch good fish. And both the girls are hooked on it now. I wish I could show you the joy on their faces in those pictures. But since both my sisters are minors, I didn't feel comfortable sharing their faces on the internet. I'm set to take some more siblings out next weekend. Should be a blast. If you've never taken a kid fishing, I highly recommend it. You don't fish much yourself, but the smiles on their faces is far better than any trophy fish. Edited September 6, 2022 by IcatchDinks Typos 15 Quote
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