I got a strange request from a friend, her daughter is absolutely infatuated with fishing. She knows that I go fishing a bit and I would probably wouldn't mind showing her daughter how to fish. I took them to a place that I really like and if they get bored they are other things to do in the area.
I got her started with tying knots and how to cast which she got way faster than I did as a kid. Everything was going great until she had to put a worm on a hook. Stereotypes exist for a reason. I wound up putting the worm on and got her started fishing.
I looked over at her mom and said "I guess I'm going to be the baiter today". As I'm regretting this as I'm saying it. Mom chuckled and it seemed to go over the daughters head, thank God.
She caught her first fish, it was a large mouth bass. She didn't panic like I thought she would she did everything I had told her to do. Mom was super excited and probably took 200 pictures. It was under size so we had to throw it back. I thought that after touching the fish and getting the slime on her fingers she would have no problem putting a worm on a hook, I was sadly mistaken. Her mom took great pleasure in calling me bait boy.
We spent the next couple of hours catching fish and her asking all kinds of questions. I think I answered everything but there were a lot. She caught 2 more under size bass and 3 bluegills. I had her fishing on the top while I was bottom fishing for catfish. I was trying to make sure she had a good time and caught fish but i was having a really good day.
I kept catching small ones but as the day went on they were getting bigger. I wound up catching 10 but I think I played it of that she caught more. My last one was a keeper, about 3 pounds and was really hard to not be proud of.
Mother Nature ended our day a little early with a thunderstorm. We stopped to get dinner and I mentioned that there are a couple of places that rent kayaks in the area and both of them lit up. I was surprised that there weren't people out while we were fishing. I stopped at a place that rents them to get information and its surprisingly cheap. That will be next trip.
The trip home was about an hour and most of it the daughter was on the phone bragging to all of her friends, mom did some of that too.
Sunday morning I got a call from my friend thanking me for taking them. I was back up there fishing and while I was talking I got a bite, I had to put the phone down while I was reeling in a fish. I landed the fish and got the hook out and released it cleaned my hands and picked up the phone not expecting her to still be there but she was. She was shocked that I was back at it but its a beautiful morning may as well spend it fishing. She wanted to see if I would be willing to do it again, I have no problem with it but she's tagging along, mom should be involved too. I think its good idea for both of them to actually interact with nature.