Sunday July 3rd, 2005
I took Dominic & Linus fishing up to Westlake pond today, in the early afternoon. Lots of bluegill here, many on their little spawning beds, and a couple of bass & carp are swimming around too. This is to introduce the boys to fishing. They have seen me do it, but the times I've taken them out so far, we didn't catch anything (or it was so slow), so they got bored. We used cheese on hooks that were a little too big, but worked anyway. The bluegill weren't shy. In fact, a big plop of the bobber + sinker got their attention, and they'd swim over to see what the food might be. They are pretty good at getting the bait off the hook, so it is probably mostly a winning situation for the fish.
I have since learned that cheese isn't good for their stomachs (gee, I could have figured that out myself) and that one should use dough balls made of flour & water, with a bit of fish oil added. Then the little guys get a meal they can digest.
We caught a few of them, some nicely sized ones and some small ones too.
Beautiful fish, some greenish, some with red and neon blue colors.. just
amazing really. Some other kids there eventually managed to catch one of
the bass; I think they took it home.
I hooked the fish, sometimes while holding the rod together with one of the boys, and let him reel in the fish. I helped Dominic cast the rod; he wanted to himself, but it is still a bit complicated. I think they like fishing now. I hope the karma of terrorizing the little guys is worth it.
One of the other kids there gave the boys a jar of worms (he was leaving). They wanted to try it, so I said ok, though I don't really love putting worms on hooks. The worms don't love it either. They were too big for the little fish anyway, but now the boys know what it is about. I don't really love fishing with bait. It isn't, like, radically less fun, but part of me feels like I'm cheating, somehow, and getting involved in a messy business best avoided. I guess that is the flyfisherman in me.
I taught the boys about wetting their hands before handling the fish,
so as to not remove much of the fish's protective slime coating.
We let them all go, though we kept a few in the bucket for a while, to
look at them. The boys like the bucket. Therese showed up later too, and
tried her hand at it a little, but didn't hook any.
I need to try this again sometime, with my 3wt flyrod and some little bug patterns. The only flies I had along were too big.
Tides for today:
oh, wait, never mind...