Fishing With B

We were at the cabin for part of this past weekend.  The weather was mostly beautiful and we had a pleasant time.  B and N took a net down to the end of the dock and tried catching sunfish.  They didn't have great success, but they did notice some other large fish swimming just off the dock.  B decided to try his hand at fishing.  We didn't have any bait, so he and I ran to the nearest bait shop.

I used to fish when I was young but it was mostly for bullheads.  I've had limited experience fishing for anything else and even less experience with any actually catching.  B has been fishing at the cabin for a few years now but mostly with small hooks and kernels of corn.  He's caught many sunfish and a bass or two.  As he's gotten older, the size of the hook has increased, as has his desire to land something different.

We arrived at the bait shop and I immediately realized we had no idea what we were doing.  We needed bait, but we didn't know what kind.  Thankfully, the girl helping us could sympathize.  She did not fish herself, but she pointed us towards the types of things other people were buying.  We left there with a scoop of minnows and a box of night crawlers.

Once back on the dock, we set about the business of rigging B's line.  We opted to try a minnow first.  B had never fished with anything but corn and worms.  The minnow seemed to hold the promise of unknown adventure.  As usual, I got the honor of baiting the hook.  As I skewered the minnow with the hook, I glanced a pained expression on B's face.  About that time, N appeared and declared that he didn't think what we were doing was right.  N's arrival seemed to steel B's feelings.  He explained that N just didn't understand real fishing.  N was not swayed from his initial judgement.

B fished for awhile with the minnow and got no bites.  Meanwhile, N inspected the bucket of minnows and reported on the health (or lack thereof of the population).  I suggested we allow N to release a couple of minnows back into the wild.  B agreed and, in fact, wanted to release a couple himself.  I switched B's bait to a nightcrawler and immediately he began getting bites.  A few more minnows were allowed to swim free.

By the end of the day, B and I had spent a few hours at the end of the dock.  He'd caught numerous fish, mostly rock bass.  We'd talked about fishing, the calm, smooth surface of the lake, the importance of being patient.  The minnows were all released into the lake, albeit a bit too late for most of them.  For all the fish he caught, we only used a couple of nightcrawlers.  The rest were released into the garden before we went home.

As we put the fishing gear away, B thanked me for fishing with him.  As we loaded the van for the trip home, he thanked me again.  Once home, he thanked me again as I kissed him goodnight.  I'm pleased that he enjoyed it as much as I did.