My 4 year old catches his first bass

[robertmee]

Proud papa had to brag.

The last three weekends, I've been spending with my 4 year old son at Lake Gaston. Just the two of us as the wife and 15 year old have had other committments. So, we spend alot of the day fishing off our boat house. He's been using his trusty lightnin' McQueen rod/reel set, and for the first weekend, it was bobbers and night crawlers. We get tons of bream around us, so he's catching those pretty well. But he's impatient and likes to fish like his daddy, casting and reeling. So the next weekend, I move him up to a rapala. I'm fishing a devil's horse. Our boathouse is in an offset channel on the way to the Kerr Dam. About 60 yards wide and 5' deep. TONS of hydrilla this time of year. I'm killing bass in the 2 to 4lb range with the devil's horse as I love top water fishing anyways.

Well, the rapala is a bit light for his tackle (mind you he's got a 2' pole) and he's not enjoying it cause he can't cast more than a few feet. Plus, I'm not keen with him having a treble hook catch him in the head. So, last weekend, I decide to just put something on that's heavier and that he can learn to cast with. I let him pick a plastic and he selects a crawfish. I rig it up with a small hook, a couple of split shot and let him have at it. The hydrilla is so thick he's having a blast cause he thinks every cast he's getting 'hits' as the plastic drags through the weeds.

Understand the purpose of this excercise is to keep him entertained and to improve his casting skills. Before long, he's casting 30 to 40' with this setup! And since I'm not pulling bream off and rebaiting his bobber every 5 minutes I'm getting some fishing in myself on the otherside.

Well, about an hour in, he's saying 'Got One!'. Now, he's been saying that about every 2 or 3 casts because of the weed drag. So, I just entertain him and tell him to reel it in. I go back to fishing and don't notice that he's fighting for awhile. After about 3 or 4 minutes, he's saying Daddy I can't get him in. I figure he's stuck on a weed pile, so I go over to help him get 'unstuck' and I'll be damned if he doesn't have a 2 lber on the line. He'd reeled it all the way to the dock but couldn't get it up and out of the water.

I was beaming and so proud. And he'd caught it on a no-nothin bait with no fancy texas or carolina rigs. Just a gummy crawfish and some split shot. I'm signing him up for the tour and taking endorsements as we speak