More enjoyable than after dinner mints

Tonight I got home from work and finished up my paperwork while Alex ate his dinner. As soon as we were done eating the two of us loaded up the canoe and headed down to the pond at the end of our road. Alex loves fishing and tonight's goal was to: First, relax and have fun and Second, to learn new fishing tactics. Anybody can fish with a worm and catch fish but I think the most enjoyable way to fish is with artificial lures. While it can be a lot of fun once you learn, the learning part can be frustrating as Alex learned tonight.

Alex started the night with live bait and I began throwing different lures trying to determine what the fish wanted. Eventually I settled on one rod with top bait and one with soft plastics. These are two of my favorite ways to bass fish and once I proved the fish were willing to play I let Alex start throwing some lures out of his tackle box. Before too long the fish were coming in the boat. I finally switched Alex over to a soft plastic bait and gave him a few quick pointers on how to work it. Three casts later the kid had a fish on that was well over 5 pounds and in comparison to the biggest fish of the night I estimate it was closer to the 10 pound mark. I was impressed at how well he was fighting the fish but after a couple minutes the fish was still going strong and pulling us back into the lily pads. I knew what was coming despite praying it didn't. The fish rolled just under the surface and made a mad dash into the thick cover of the lily pads. I tried to maneuver the canoe so that we could regain the upper hand but it was too late. I have lost a lot of fish in my days but I actually wanted to cry for Alex, seeing the disappointment in his eyes was almost too much for me to handle.

Despite our disappointment I used this as the perfect opportunity to tell Alex my story. I grew up fishing fast moving water with my dad and the only time I used lures was at the local hobby pond. It wasn't until I was 15 and my brother gave me his boat that I started getting serious about bass fishing. By the time I was 16 I was a pretty good fisherman and me and my friends would hold tournaments between us, sometimes as individuals other times as teams of two. More often than not Tony and I would come out ahead of everyone but I had a dark secret, I couldn't fish with soft plastic baits. I tried time and time again but it wasn't until I was almost 18 that I finally revealed my secret to Tony and without hesitation he started giving me pointers. When ever I was alone I began honing my skills and before too long I was enjoying a taut line and smelly hands. Finally the day came and Tony and I were fishing together and bragging rights and getting stuck paying for breakfast were the stakes agreed upon. I began the day using my typical lures and Tony went to his tried and true rubber worms and began dreaming about his free breakfast. With my back turned to him I opened up my new tackle box and rigged my line with a soft plastic bait of my own. The master was about to be schooled by the pupil. I almost immediately hooked into a nice 3 pound bass and spontaneously declared "Ut-Oh - someone learned how to fish with rubber!" While I would like to say that I won the tournament that day, I didn't but it was the beginning to a new journey of fishing which I still am learning to master all these years later.

When I was done telling Alex this story continued fishing and time after time his pole would bend and his line go tight but unfortunately none of the fish made it into the boat. He was frustrated and disappointed but he made sure to tell me despite that he was glad to be spending time with his dear old dad on the water. I used this opportunity to tell him how proud I was of him. You see in my story above I was almost 18 before I began my journey of fishing with plastics, Alex is only 11! He is 7 years ahead of me and despite being really bummed out about losing the big one, he now knows its possible which will fuel his desire to not only catch that fish some day but to catch one even bigger - a feat that I am positive he will achieve. I am also proud of the fact he achieved our first goal of the night, relaxing on the water together, father and son having fun. I would have much rather have had Alex catch all the fish but he was happy to share my success and posed with some of the fish that I landed tonight and considering our lines got tangled on one of the bigger fish I think he should get credit for catching that one!