Keeping a kid's attention on a fishing trip can be a challenge. They want to play with the worms or try and catch the minnows in the bucket. "Look at all these little fish. Can we keep them?"
The trick to turning on a little person to fishing is getting them on the fish so try to stick with a species that schools.
White bass fishing is probably the best kind of fishing for little kids. And it's not bad for impatient adults such as myself. Oh I like working for a black bass when I'm by myself but to pull in hundreds of fish in one day with a bunch of kids is as close to Heaven as you're going to get down on this rock.
The white bass, commonly referred to as "sand bass," are migratory open-water fish. Most of their life is spent in the open-water portions of reservoirs chasing schools of shad. In the Texas spring time, schools of white bass migrate to the upper portions of reservoirs to spawn which is when you want to wet that hook and pull them out of the water.
Last year, my boys helped me pull over 80 fish out of Caddo Lake but the best fishing story you'll ever hear will be the one you read today.
As this is a tradition with the Holt boys each year, my oldest was inquiring what we'll do with all the fish we catch. I have so much in my freezer already, we always end up giving it to the locals when we return to the dock. After I told him this, he says to me, "Oh...so it's like charity." I told him that you could consider it a charity if you wanted to. Feeding folks that live off the lake is a great thing and if one wanted to consider that a charitable contribution, I don't think I could argue with it.
We fished hard all day breaking only an hour for lunch. It was cooler in the morning and we managed to fight off a kamikaze attack of local mosquitos that swarmed us before noon. By the afternoon, the sun had come out full throttle and we were five sweating boys pulling fish out of that water faster than you could pull up your socks.
Five o-clock finally found it's way to our boat and the fish finally stopped biting. The sun was beginning to set and we all sat down to rest from our arm and wrist work-out.
We had pulled in the anchor and our fishing guide, Billy Carter, was just about to crank the boat when my oldest asked him to hold up for just a minute. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out an orange piece of paper and hands it to Billy. He explains that this is his "All Saints Community Service Form" and he asked that he sign it for all the community work he had done that day.
Well Billy looked at me and I looked back at him as we were both confused. Then it hit me that my boy was thinking since we give all the fish away, we must be doing community service. I explain this to Billy and he just about wets his pants from laughing.
His quote was, "Boy, I've been doing this all my life. I'm almost 60 years old and I have never had anyone ask me to sign a community service document. But I'll tell you this, if that works out for you, every man in America will be wanting me to take them out for community service work as they will be able to tell their wives that they're really not going fishing."
Peace out. I'm off to Caddo.
The trick to turning on a little person to fishing is getting them on the fish so try to stick with a species that schools.
White bass fishing is probably the best kind of fishing for little kids. And it's not bad for impatient adults such as myself. Oh I like working for a black bass when I'm by myself but to pull in hundreds of fish in one day with a bunch of kids is as close to Heaven as you're going to get down on this rock.
The white bass, commonly referred to as "sand bass," are migratory open-water fish. Most of their life is spent in the open-water portions of reservoirs chasing schools of shad. In the Texas spring time, schools of white bass migrate to the upper portions of reservoirs to spawn which is when you want to wet that hook and pull them out of the water.
Last year, my boys helped me pull over 80 fish out of Caddo Lake but the best fishing story you'll ever hear will be the one you read today.
As this is a tradition with the Holt boys each year, my oldest was inquiring what we'll do with all the fish we catch. I have so much in my freezer already, we always end up giving it to the locals when we return to the dock. After I told him this, he says to me, "Oh...so it's like charity." I told him that you could consider it a charity if you wanted to. Feeding folks that live off the lake is a great thing and if one wanted to consider that a charitable contribution, I don't think I could argue with it.
We fished hard all day breaking only an hour for lunch. It was cooler in the morning and we managed to fight off a kamikaze attack of local mosquitos that swarmed us before noon. By the afternoon, the sun had come out full throttle and we were five sweating boys pulling fish out of that water faster than you could pull up your socks.
Five o-clock finally found it's way to our boat and the fish finally stopped biting. The sun was beginning to set and we all sat down to rest from our arm and wrist work-out.
We had pulled in the anchor and our fishing guide, Billy Carter, was just about to crank the boat when my oldest asked him to hold up for just a minute. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out an orange piece of paper and hands it to Billy. He explains that this is his "All Saints Community Service Form" and he asked that he sign it for all the community work he had done that day.
Well Billy looked at me and I looked back at him as we were both confused. Then it hit me that my boy was thinking since we give all the fish away, we must be doing community service. I explain this to Billy and he just about wets his pants from laughing.
His quote was, "Boy, I've been doing this all my life. I'm almost 60 years old and I have never had anyone ask me to sign a community service document. But I'll tell you this, if that works out for you, every man in America will be wanting me to take them out for community service work as they will be able to tell their wives that they're really not going fishing."
Peace out. I'm off to Caddo.
OMG! That is hilarious. I will have to try that one. "Sorry, I can't come in today. I'm doing charity work."
ReplyDeleteI have a few real fond memories of the "boys weekend" at Caddo you invited me along for Edwin - back when I still lived in TX. The fishing was OK, but the jam sessions in the evening were awesome. Pig was pretty good too.
ReplyDelete