Grandpa & Grandson

I love teaching young fishermen to fish and today was going to be a real treat for me! I had Leonard (grandfather) & his 7 year old grandson out on a local lake for smallmouth bass. The weather was an exact replica of yesterday with flat calm conditions and beautiful sunny skies for the run up the lake. Air temps went up into the mid 80’s and the water temps were mid 70’s. It only took a few minutes to teach Eron how to hold & cast a spinning rod & he was ready to catch some fish. Unfortunately, one of the first smallies of the day was to also be the biggest and after a short battle, broke off. This bass had to go between 4 & 5 pounds and had no intentions of coming to the net. He managed to get into another fish not long after and soon was tight to a Northern Pike of over 8 pounds. It took all that he could manage to reel this fish in and was happy when I finally grabbed it beside the boat. Leonard took a few quick shots and we let the fish go. Practicing “Catch & Release” at a young age is a great thing to do! Leonard soon got in the game and began catching smallies one after another when we managed to find a feeding school of bass. Smallies of 3 to almost 4 pounds were being caught and a few went into the livewell for a later photo shoot. Eron managed to do battle with his share of bass and it pretty much beat him up. These smallies are really strong and for a 7 year old boy, incredibly tough to handle! We fished up until about 2:00 PM and decided that it was time to head back to the ramp for the day. Like all young boys, he had to drive the boat and helped me steer it back to the dock. This was a great day with almost 20 fish being caught & released in a 6 hour period. The youth is our future and by introducing them to the sport of fishing like Leonard did today, it can only be a good thing. Hooked on Fishing, not other things in life!! Hats off to everyone who takes a young kid fishing!!