My Very Best Fishing Buddy

Something from the tackle box:

       Can you catch a sea monster by using a fishhook?  Can you tie its mouth shut with a rope?  Can it be led around by a ring in its nose, or a hook in its jaw?  Will it beg for mercy?  Will it surrender as a slave for life?  Can it be tied by the leg like a pet bird for little girls?  Is it ever chopped up and its pieces bargained for in the fish-market?  Can it be killed with harpoons or spears?  Wrestle with it just once – that will be the end.  Merely a glimpse of this monster makes all courage melt.  (Job 41:1-9  CEV)

The two best I know - Nolan catches fish with grandma in Delmar's Cove

       My last story, about fishing with my lovely wife Kathy, went over so well that I’ve decided to do a couple more stories about fishing with particular people who are a part of my life.  This story is about one of my favorite fishing partners, my five-year-old grandson, Nolan.

       Since before he could fish I would be telling my grandson, “Someday soon, Nolan, we will be going fishing together, and you will be my very - best - fishing - buddy.”  

       “Oh yeah, grandpa.  That’s going to be fun,” was always the response.  And I am happy to report that, so far, it has turned out to be just so!

happy faux fishing

       It started out when he was three.  We used toy fishing rods loaded with cotton string and magnetic hooks, and we went angling from Nolan’s boat, that looked a lot like a picnic table, for plastic fish that were swimming in water that looked a lot like the grass in his back yard. 

       It was great fun.  And, taking after my wife, Nolan always seemed to catch more and bigger plastic fish than I did.  I guess he has inherited grandma’s marked superiority over his old grandpa’s feeble fish catching abilities. – I also noted that he has inherited his grandma’s wonderful glowing smile whenever he would catch a fish that put him ahead of me in the count. – Alack and alas for me, an old-timer, doomed to perpetual sidekick status fishing in the presence of true angling greatness. 

       But fishing with toy rods, off of picnic table boats, for plastic fish strewn on the lawn, would not be the final chapter in our now longstanding fishing relationship.  Two springs ago now, when Nolan had reached the adventurous and capable age of four, we started fishing with real tackle, in real water, for real fish!

First real fishing on Jordan Lake

       Our first adventure took us a four-block walk from the parsonage, down to a parishioner’s home on Jordan Lake, where we fished off the dock for some of the abundant ‘sunnies’ that my parishioner’s two daughters had reported as being very anxious to be caught.  We had been practicing in the back yard with a small spin-casting rig, but Nolan wasn’t quite ready to use it in live action yet, at least not without endangering his old grandpa’s life and limb in the process, so we opted for my grandpa’s favorite tackle, cane poles.  It was a glorious outing!  Fish were caught, and I came away with only a couple of minor injuries. 

       A little bit more practice with his crank-style fishing gear that summer and Nolan was ready for the annual Lake Odessa Little Kid’s Fishing Tournament, held every August on a small private lake just outside of town.  The lake is a man-made fishing hole excavated out of a corner of the local gravel quarry.  I would guess that it’s only about five or six acres of water surface, but the owners keep it well stocked with bluegills and bass.  It may not seem like a prime location to hold a civic sponsored fishing tournament, but every year fifty or more kids between the ages of three and thirteen show up to try out their angling skills against one another, with adult assistance and supervision, of course.  Nolan was anxious to use his new spin-casting rod and reel, figuring it would give him quite an edge, but grandpa took along his cane pole too, just in case.  Both got used. 

Gramp helps get the tackle set up

       The tournament lasts for two hours, from nine to eleven in the morning.  Grandma and grandpa were both concerned that this might be too long a stretch for a four-year-old fisherman, and we let Nolan know, right up front, that he only had to fish for as long as he wanted to fish.  The moment he got tired of it all, we’d throw rocks in the lake, or do something else, whatever would make the day fun for him.  We figured that we’d probably be packing up and leaving before the prizes were even handed out – and that would be OK.  But the little guy surprised us.  He fished enthusiastically for almost an hour and forty-five minutes before he decided that it would be more fun to dig in the dirt of the lake bank with a stick.  We considered it an impressive stretch of fishing for a preschooler. 

first fishing tournament in Lake Odessa

       While Nolan was nowhere near the top of his age bracket in number of fish caught, or largest catch, he did put together a nice stringer of five pan-fish for gramps to clean and gramma to cook for lunch.  While no prizes were won, we left with much optimistic banter about how much better he was likely to do next year with all the fishing experience he would have at the age of five!

       This past summer brought another Lake Odessa Kid’s Fishing Tournament, along with a brief moment of consternation over the fact that he didn’t catch more fish at the age of five than he had at the age of four.  My sage observation was, “Oh well, that’s fishing, Nolan.”  He seemed to get it.  But then again……. maybe six is the age when true fishing prowess will manifest itself….

       More importantly, this past summer brought Nolan on his first trip to go fishing with grandpa and grandma up at the cottage on Long Lake!  If Nolan didn’t shine in competitive fishing at the local gravel pit, he sure made up for any deficit fishing the natural waters of a true northern lake!  Unlike the tournament, where adults are required to supervise and assist the youngsters, but strictly prohibited from fishing themselves, grandma and grandpa could enjoy fishing right along with Nolan up on the lake.  But why bother!  If Kathy has me beat before we even set out most times we go fishing, she now has to bow and pass her crown on to Nolan.  He has us both whipped, hands down!

       Now, it is true that I took Nolan to spots where I was reasonably certain that we would catch a lot of very small fish with very little trouble.  Sure, almost all of them would be too tiny to keep, but so what? 

       “Let’s go catch some fish, best buddy!”

       “Sure thing, grandpa.  Lots of fish!” 

       The bigger ones can wait a few seasons, until the capacity for patience, especially as it applies to the craft of catching the bigger fish in a lake, is more developed than the average five-year-old can be expected to have.  In layman’s terms, if you take a youngster fishing, – and don’t catch any fish – at all, – you might not have a very enthusiastic fishing partner the following year – or any fishing partner – at all – once they get old enough to say “no” to the suggestion. 

Something to take home in your creel:

 

        I figure it this way; when you’re trying to develop a shared passion in a child’s heart for anything, - and especially for something that you want to enjoy in company together with them for many years to come, - it just makes sense to approach it the way I did this past summer.  Nolan and I fished a lot of sites where I knew we could expect a fair amount of bites, if not a lot of line-stretching, rod-bending fights.  We would have lots of fun, even if the lunkers would all remain in our future. 

a nice 'rocky'

       I was optimistic, but I sure didn’t expect what we got!  I’m here to tell you that the kid could hardly throw a line in the general vicinity of water without catching a fish, - and quite a few of them were genuine keepers!   I didn’t get in half the fishing I had hoped to do myself, as every time I got Nolan going and then went to set up my own tackle, Nolan would have a fish on that was too big for his little hands to get unhooked and back into the water by himself.  The Rock Bass seemed especially fond of Nolan’s technique.  Nice ones too.  Go figure. 

       In any event, I’m pretty optimistic about next year’s fishing enthusiasm level from my very - best - fishing - buddy.  

trips up north to fish can wear a guy right out!