Another bass story...

[WatterBoy]

We spent some time at the lake last weekend with my youngest sister, her husband and their 3 kids. As I helped my nephews (10, 3) and niece (5) fish from the dock on Saturday morning, my sister mentioned that she would like to get a fishing license. I said sure, let's go get you one (she hadn't ever fished in her life except maybe once or twice as a small child). Later that night as we were helping the kids fish from the dock again, my sister asked about going out fishing with me in the boat the next morning (I had gone out solo at 5 a.m. that morning). I said great, that would be fun. Now keep in mind that it's still cold here in semi-northern MN in the early morning -- things like a stocking cap and multiple layers of sweatshirts, coats, etc. are usually called for. Plus, at this point in time, she didn't even know how to open the bail on a spinning reel, let alone cast one. So I told her, well, I better teach you how to cast. So we set about practicing casting and retrieving, not worrying at all about actually "fishing" at that point. After about half a dozen casts, she was bringing the line back in when a bass grabbed the Yamasenko I had on the rod she was using and started giving her a fight. Well, we hadn't talked about what it meant to set the hook yet, so after a couple cranks, the LM escaped. She had been interested in fishing before, but now she was really determined--she wanted to catch something! So we talked about how to actually fish a Yamasenko and practiced a few fake hook sets as well. Then I turned her loose to do some actual dock fishing. It wasn't long before she landed her first bass ever - 2lb 1oz, 15.5", and shortly after that her second - 2lb 4oz, 15.5" again. She was ecstatic to say the least and she even held the fish herself for the pictures without any hesitation!


At 5:30 the next morning we were both up and ready to head out for a couple hours of fishing in the boat before the others woke up. Before we had even been fishing 15 minutes, she boated the first bass of the day - 2lb 3oz, 15".


It would be the only fish she landed in the two hours we fished (I landed a couple about the same size a little later), but that hardly mattered. It had been a truly great morning and weekend -- I got to spend quality time with my sister, I got to teach her what (little) I know about bass fishing, and on top of that, I got to watch her become a bass fishing addict right before my very eyes!

Later that night after my sister and her family had departed, I landed two nice bass of my own while dock-fishing with my wife. The first one was 3lb 14oz, 19" and the other was 3lb 0oz and 16.5".


Here are pics of my niece (with help from my wife) and nephew with some of their dock catches from the weekend.