Sunday, June 10, 2018

Family Fishin'

Today was my second "opening day" of fishing this spring/summer.  About a month ago I wrote this post about the official Opening Day of the 2018 fishing season; on that day my dad and I fished in his canoe on Secret Lake #3.  I haven't been on the water or wet a line since.  Until today.

This morning my three daughters and my youngest nephew accompanied me to Secret Lake #1.  It was their first fishing trip this summer as well as the first time my boat has touched water since last summer, thus my reasoning for claiming a second opening day.

Blue skies, warm sunshine, and a gusty south-east wind greeted us as we backed down to the water's edge.  After the usual first-time-floundering during the boat launching process (I didn't forget to put the plug in!) we piled into the boat and did a collective breath-hold while I started cranking on the pull rope of my motor; after more pulls than I wanted but not as many I was afraid of the motor roared to life.  So the boat still floated and the motor actually started - we were off to a fine start.  After a 10 minute boat ride around the lake (it's a small lake) we settled into a calm bay to see if our good fortune would continue.

Have you ever fished with kids?  Have you ever fished with four kids, in a boat, with no other adults?  No?  Hmmmmm, how best to describe the experience.  Find a small room that's about four feet wide and sixteen feet long.  Bring four fishing rods with you.  Throw some fishing lures on the floor, even a couple of live fish.  Before locking yourself inside this room squeeze in one more thing - an F-1 tornado.  Close the door and let the tornado do its thing.  There, you have now fished with four kids!

Let's see - four hooks to bait, four hooks to take fish off of.  Two rods that somehow kept getting the line twisted around the end (the rods used by the youngest fisherpeoples.....hmmmmm).  One rod that flew apart on a cast.  One line that got caught in the trolling motor......ok, ok, that one was my line!  One fisherman in the front who kept setting the hook really well into submerged logs and branches.  One fisherwoman in the back who managed to hook a tire - a tire! - laying on the bottom of the lake.  One fisherwoman in the middle who did a really good job of following the guide's directions of how to catch fish, but then who wouldn't follow directions on how to take the fish off.  One swirling wind that required the guide/fish releaser/hook baiter/snag remover/motor operator to constantly be adjusting and readjusting our course.  But there was also....

....a lot of smiles.  Some belly laughs.  Everyone caught a fish (except for the guide).  My middle daughter caught the bass she was fishing for.  We had some close-up views of a bald eagle.  We also had buzzards circling for a while, which was a bit unnerving.  We got to spend a couple of hours on a really pretty lake.  We saw our first fawn of the summer on our drive home.  Most importantly, I got to fish with my kids.

Sure, fishing with kids is challenging.  But giving my kids the opportunity to spend time fishing is worth all of the challenges and (sometimes) frustrations of helping them fish.  It's been said "time spent fishing is not subtracted from a man's life."  Even though fishing with a boatload of kids can be - and usually is - exhausting, I have to believe that time spent fishing with kids actually adds to a man's life.  I know it adds to theirs.  And, exhausting or not, how could I not have fun with this crew?



No comments:

Post a Comment