First Fishing Outing for the Season 04-09-2007

[islandbass]

I took my daughter and godson to a small local lake for some trout fishing yesterday afternoon, despite the overcast conditions outside.

We started the morning assembling a small trout class spinner where they got to choose the blade size, color, body shape, treble and color tubing. Both of them were very excited about making their own spinners and even more excited to go fishing. I told them that we would try some power bait first, then salmon eggs, and use the spinners last.

The sun greeted us as it pierced through the gray clouds as we approached the shore. The wind was blowing pretty strong toward the shore and my gut said that the shoreline before was going to be a good spot with the wind blowing the water toward us.

We placed our stuff on a picnic table. I propped up a chair for each of them and stuck a rod holder into the ground and proceeded to prep their rods. The kids were good to go and ready for action in a few short minutes.

Now, I hardly ever fish for myself on these outings, because line tangles and reapplying lost bait keep me too busy to fish. I don't really mind however, and my thoughts were confirmed when My godson made a hard cast that hit the water hard enough to throw off the power bait dough.

Bless my little girl! She is such a great little fisher-girl. I am so glad that she has the knack for fishing. She is a natural at fishing, unlike me. She stands up from the chair and says with calmly and collectively, Papi, I've got one, as she sets the hook. Not even 3 minutes from her first cast.

My fingers were full of rainbow colored power bait and I pricked myself on my godson's bait hook trying to quickly get him started again and help her land the fish. I happened to slip right at the shore and luckily caught myself on her chair and avoided the muddy ground. Whew!

It was your typical stocked trout, nothing to brag about, but nonetheless I was ecstatic, probably more than she! Just a proud dad I guess. I took this first fish as a good sign that it was going to be a great day. Little did I know I was going to be wrong.

Shortly afterward, the clouds blotted out the sun and a light precipitation began. My godson said to me, Uncle, I think it's hailing. I told him, Nah, it can't be. We're well into spring so it shouldn't hail today.

The drizzle changed to teeny tiny bits of sleet-sized hail, and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, a deluge of larger hail hit us. Luckily, lil' ol' islandbass usually plans for the worst. Fortunately, we had two big umbrellas to keep the hail at bay. Unfortunately, the wind had picked up and was blowing violently and despite the cover of the umbrellas, an occasional piece of made it through and pelted us good. Then, the wind blew the golf-sized umbrella from her hands as I moved to put the chairs right next to each other. The wind picked it up as if it were a sail and before I could react, my daughter rushed into the lake to grab the umbrella. While she did save the umbrella she did so at a depth that exceeded the height of her waterproof rubber boots. She was soaked from the knees down and her boots were filled with water. She started crying, saying she was very cold, and she wanted to go home immediately, but I told her it would be better to wait until the hail stopped. Although the hailstorm passed after what was probably 10 minutes, it must have felt like an eternity for my daughter. She felt miserably cold all the way back to the van.

My godson was feeling pretty cold too, but he didn't want to leave until he caught a fish. He had three chances during the storm but he didn't connect. He was bummed out, but he understood that we had to go.

We finally made it back to the van and I got them some hot cocoa to warm them up at a nearby Starbucks and treated them to McDonalds too.

I'm still proud of them for being troopers out there. We're going to have to go back there when the weather improves. They want a second shot.

I did get a chance to throw my drop shot rig out a couple times for some bass, but all I managed to get were those tiny planters (the stocked rainbows) nibbling at my worm trying to suck it down as a bass would. I didn't give them a chance to get hooked either. It was kind of neat seeing them move my line and yanking it away before they could reach the hook.

Sorry that this is a bit long, but I thought this is a story worth telling about two little kids who braved the weather to do a little spring fishing.

-ib