She has her Daddy's eyes and...

My love of the great outdoors. Tonight Alex didn't feel like going anywhere after spending the day in the pool with his cousins who are visiting from Pittsburgh.So I waited patiently for Ariel to come home with hopes that she would want to go out fishing with me. She finally got home and was more than willing to spend the night out on the water with her daddy. At 7:30 we had loaded up the canoe and headed down to the pond at the end of our road. I realized the past few weeks how much I have missed bass fishing and the desire to spend any spare time I have on the water has been reignited.

Tonight would be different than my fishing trip with Alex earlier in the week. You see Ariel has already graduated from lure fishing 101. Drowning worms was never her style, she was captivated the first time she watched me tie on a spinner and rip it through the water column and refused to sit and watch a bobber dance on the waves ever again. I can remember her graduating from the snoopy pole to a big girl rod and reel!

She began mastering her underspin combo in short order and it didn't take her long to move up to her first open faced reel. Like many other things since she was a natural and caught fish effortlessly. I have always been proud of the fact both my kids learned how to use a fishing pole properly and at a young age both of them were able to go fishing and cast their own lines without assistance. Ariel would tag along with me and Tony in the boat and much like me she is a firecracker when it comes to trash talk while out fishing. On several occasions she would be reminded verbally that she was going a little too far (especially the day she began pulling fish into the boat with her effortless use of a rubber grub) but more often than not she learned her lesson by watching the masters hone their craft.

Fast forward to tonight, we shoved off from the shore and I gave her choice of lures. She opted for a soft bait, I smiled knowing she never shy's away from a challenge. It has been awhile since the two of us spent time fishing together alone and despite there not being a lot conversation I basked in the joy of knowing my daughter was enjoying this moment as much as me. I tied on the lure of her choice and paddled us across the pond. It only took a moment for her to hook into a fish and before I knew it we had doubled up and both our poles were arched beautifully. The occupants of the other 2 vessels on the water watched in awe as my daughter and I both battled with healthy fish only moments after we had arrived, mission accomplished!

The rest of the night would be filled with missed strikes and fish lost before making it into the boat but it didn't matter we were having fun. We fished into the darkness and marveled at the bats swooping down between us eating their fill of mosquitoes, an act that Ariel appreciates more than most people could ever imagine. As we rowed back to shore we listened to the frogs along the wood line and the occasional high pitch squeak from the bats. While we didn't say much throughout the night I cherished every moment we spent together and look forward to many more fishing trips together. I just pray when my children grow up they look back on these brief moments in life with as much joy as I do when I reflect on the time I spent at the waters edge with my dad.