It’s 94-degrees and muggy. Do you want to go stand by a small body of water for an hour after dinner and swat bugs away from your face and smack your legs when mosquitoes land on them and sweat through your shirt?
No? That doesn’t sound like fun?
Well, you’re right, it’s not. However, that’s what lake fishing is if you don’t
catch anything… But if you do, it’s awesome. There really is no in between.
I’ve taken my kids fishing after dinner a few nights a week all summer. My daughter really enjoys it. I really enjoy it. My son would rather watch videos on YouTube of someone else playing Super Mario Smash Bros., which is exactly why I make him come with us.
Tonight, he put his little size 1 foot down and tried to refuse to go. I believe his direct quote was, ““When you don’t catch any fish it’s dumb. It’s just standing there. And it’s hot. And it’s really dumb.”
Yes, two ‘dumbs’ in one quote. As you can tell, he’s a real fan.
And yet, I gave him no choice.
My strategy this evening was to let him do everything. Pick his bait. Pick his fishing spot. Pick his nose… Whatever.
And it worked!
On the very first cast of the night he caught a huge bass. He was elated. I was proud of him. My daughter was proud of him.
Then he started talking smack.
And I didn’t catch anything. And my daughter didn’t catch anything.
For 45 minutes we listened to the boy who thought fishing was ‘dumb’ and ‘really dumb’ tell us how he caught his fish and how he knows what fish like to eat and how we aren’t casting in the right place and how he’ll “show us what he did if we want.”
My daughter and I shared eye rolls and jokes the whole time, but I could tell she was bummed that she didn’t catch anything and it bugged her that she likes fishing and struck out and her brother doesn’t and he caught something.
Unfortunately, it was time to go.
As I gathered our stuff, my daughter asked if she could cast one more line and I said ‘fine’… And one more line was all it took, because she hooked a monster!
“Dad, look!” she said, reeling it in and getting it out of the water. “It’s huge!”
And it was. Easily the biggest bass I’d seen in our little pond. I unhooked it, snapped the requisite photos and released it.
We caught a fish on the first cast of the night and the last. Both kids were happy.
“I’m proud of you guys,” I said, smiling to myself, savoring the moment. “This was a great trip.”
“Well, not for you,” my son said. “You didn’t catch anything.”
Little shit.
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