03-26-2006, 04:08 PM
Started the day with the Scouting for food drive. There are only 5 boys in the troop. One had pnemonia, one was skiing, one was out of town. That left me with two boys to cover our area. One had to leave half-way through which left me with one kid to finish. Not a problem. We finished by 11:30 and we headed for home. The last little fella asked me when we (the scouts) were going fishing again. I told him I didn't know, but we would work on it. He told me he had only caught one white bass in his whole life. That was all it took. My son was in Wyo, so I had no fishing buddy this weekend. I asked him if he wanted to go fishing today. His face lit up, got the nod from his parents, and were on our way by noon!
Got to rockcliff at about 12:30 and set out for the South bank. Drilled a hole, dropped in, explained the Marcum, set up his pole, explained the strike indicator, and set him to it. Watched for 10 minutes with just a couple of looks, but no hits. Decided that wouldnt do, so I started drilling holes along the bank.(PapaBaruu thinks I drill alot of holes[shocked]) Moved him to another hole and he got a couple of hits. Boy did that excite him! Still no hookups. Moved to the third hole, and a great big red blob started to move up from the bottom to meet his jig. He asked what that was and I told him to throw is bail just as the fish got to his bait. He did and BANG! No nibble, no strike indicator necessary, the whole pole bent over and the drag(set light for a beginner) started whining! Two or three minutes later he pulled a beautiful 18.5 inch rainbow out! He started doing the Indian victory dance all around his new trophy! Priceless! He got out an old camera and tried to take some pics, I got some with my cell phone.(Sorry still trying to figure out how to get a pic out of a phone) Finally got him to start fishing again by mentioning that the finder was showing more fish.
Ok, back on task. He caught some more small fish and worked on setting the hook for a while. Got pretty good at all the basics. About 3:00 he sees a fish come up to look at his offering. Indicator takes a dip and he sets the hook. Perfect. The fish starts shaking its head, and I can tell from the way it shakes it's a big fish. Then it took off, and offf and offff! Peeled drag until I was looking at the spool to make sure he wasn't going to run out of line on the small reel! OK, got my attention now! Finally the fish tires some and the drag gets quiet. He reels it in for a ways and Mr fish decides to go for another run. I haven't seen runs like this all year. (probably a good thing I'm not holding the rod[crazy]) He followed directions and reeled like a pro. Finally he gets the fish close to the hole. Now something new to worry about...seven inch hole![unsure] We can see the fish swimming past the hole, but because he's new at the game he can't get the head turned up the hole!! It's killing me! Big brown! Finally he turns the head up the hole and out slides a twenty-two inch brown!!! We both do the Indian victory dance, high fives...Wow what a fish.
He catches one more fish to fill his limit. I take a turn at fishing and catch one and lose one at the hole. He ended up with eleven fish and me one. Not much action for me, but that wasn't what it was all about today. Future fisherman on his way...
Sorry so long, excellent day on the ice.
Chester
[signature]
Got to rockcliff at about 12:30 and set out for the South bank. Drilled a hole, dropped in, explained the Marcum, set up his pole, explained the strike indicator, and set him to it. Watched for 10 minutes with just a couple of looks, but no hits. Decided that wouldnt do, so I started drilling holes along the bank.(PapaBaruu thinks I drill alot of holes[shocked]) Moved him to another hole and he got a couple of hits. Boy did that excite him! Still no hookups. Moved to the third hole, and a great big red blob started to move up from the bottom to meet his jig. He asked what that was and I told him to throw is bail just as the fish got to his bait. He did and BANG! No nibble, no strike indicator necessary, the whole pole bent over and the drag(set light for a beginner) started whining! Two or three minutes later he pulled a beautiful 18.5 inch rainbow out! He started doing the Indian victory dance all around his new trophy! Priceless! He got out an old camera and tried to take some pics, I got some with my cell phone.(Sorry still trying to figure out how to get a pic out of a phone) Finally got him to start fishing again by mentioning that the finder was showing more fish.
Ok, back on task. He caught some more small fish and worked on setting the hook for a while. Got pretty good at all the basics. About 3:00 he sees a fish come up to look at his offering. Indicator takes a dip and he sets the hook. Perfect. The fish starts shaking its head, and I can tell from the way it shakes it's a big fish. Then it took off, and offf and offff! Peeled drag until I was looking at the spool to make sure he wasn't going to run out of line on the small reel! OK, got my attention now! Finally the fish tires some and the drag gets quiet. He reels it in for a ways and Mr fish decides to go for another run. I haven't seen runs like this all year. (probably a good thing I'm not holding the rod[crazy]) He followed directions and reeled like a pro. Finally he gets the fish close to the hole. Now something new to worry about...seven inch hole![unsure] We can see the fish swimming past the hole, but because he's new at the game he can't get the head turned up the hole!! It's killing me! Big brown! Finally he turns the head up the hole and out slides a twenty-two inch brown!!! We both do the Indian victory dance, high fives...Wow what a fish.
He catches one more fish to fill his limit. I take a turn at fishing and catch one and lose one at the hole. He ended up with eleven fish and me one. Not much action for me, but that wasn't what it was all about today. Future fisherman on his way...
Sorry so long, excellent day on the ice.
Chester
[signature]