Pre-Father's Day Lesson: Gone Fishin'

My kids have been begging me to take them fishing for…well, almost a year. And that makes me ask a timely question--what kind of father am I? Every kid needs to go fishing--at least to try it out.

Yesterday, my kids and I drove to southern Virginia to visit my parents and celebrate my father’s birthday and father’s day. And we took with us a couple of fishing poles and some basic tackle. Today was that fateful appointed day--the day I took my kids fishing. My dad bought night crawlers yesterday--shipped fresh from Canada! We packed some hot dogs and grilling supplies and headed to the boat ramp near Long Island on the Staunton (or Roanoke) River. The river was running a bit muddy and it was hot. There were a few people there at boat ramp but not the rural Virginia block party I was expecting.

Earlier in the day I had given both kids a chance to practice their casting skills with partially loaded rods. They had bobbers but no other tackle. Casting is a tricky thing that requires some hand eye coordination. Since I didn’t get my kids rods made specifically for kids, they also had the disadvantage of using equipment made for adult hands and arms. In order to cast, you have to push the button down hard and hold it so the line doesn’t go out. Then, while holding the button hard, you have to cock the arm back then flick the elbow and wrist while letting up on the button at just the right time. Needless to say, this set of skills took a bit of practicing to master. Bobbers and line flew every which way for a little while, but really both kids caught on pretty quickly. I had a reputation, well earned, of being a bit of a wild caster so I was pleased to see that my kids hadn’t inherited the gene from me.

When we got to the boat ramp, the kids were really excited. I quickly put the swivels and hooks on their poles and wormed ‘em up. Then we walked down to the boat ramp to try out some live casting. It was a bit hairy at times because they both wanted to cast at the same time and the ramp was set down into the bank enough that space as a little limited. Still, it was a better location for beginners than a bushy bank where tumbles into the water are all too easy and bushes await to steal worms and tackle. The river was moving just fast enough that a good cast really lasted only a couple of minutes before the kids had to reel in and cast again. This created a less than ideal situation for novice fishers. They ended up having to cast pretty frequently. And if a cast didn’t come out just right, the line was reeled in and redone until the perfect placement was achieved. Lots of casting, in a somewhat constricted locale with novice casters…a recipe for at the very least a stressed out dad and at the worst a fish hook in kid flesh.

Oh and the worm carnage. Lots of casting makes for lots of lost worms and therefore lots of reloads. We burned through a bunch of worms in pretty short order. Unfortunately, there were no fish biting. To their credit, my kids fished their butts off for a good hour before abandoning their poles for a nice grilled hot dog lunch. Then after lunch, they got back out there and tried some more rapid-fire casting. All to no avail. In all, they probably logged almost 2 hours of fruitless fishing. That is pretty good considering the attention span of most kids…including mine.

The day was rescued by one simple fact. The place where you fish can be converted quickly into the place where you go swimming. We ended the afternoon with the kids running down the boat ramp doing splash-downs into the river. They loved it and, despite the fishing failures, will be left with a positive memory of their first fishing trip.

As for me, drag-foot dad, it turned out pretty good too. I only got one hook into me the entire time and managed to keep the kids from hooking one another. We burned through the worms but only really lost a couple of sets of hooks and swivels. I am disappointed that my kids didn’t get to catch any fish, but that may be a blessing in disguise. As soon as they catch one I suspect that they will lose all interest in fishing. After all, fish are wiggly, slimy, smelly, and not very cute. Fishing to actually catch them, as opposed to just fishing, is an acquired taste that asks you to get beyond all the reasons why you don’t want to catch and touch a fish. I don’t think my kids are there just yet.

This experience confirmed something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I grew up living outdoors. So far I haven’t given my kids that same experience and if I don’t start they won’t in the least bit interested in ever doing things like fishing and camping and canoeing. It is high time for me to father up.