Fishing
with Kids
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By Todd "Fishing Nut"
Two years ago, a buddy of mine, Jon, and I went up north on a camping trip and brought his two boys, Brian (5) and Daniel (6), along. I had a pop up camper that we used that my buddy pulled, and I pulled my boat up (at the time, I had a 14' aluminum with a 10HP motor). The boat was fine, albeit a little beat up, and the motor still ran. Not bad since it was a 1950's model Johnson.
We got up north and set up camp on Friday night in the
state forest. Pretty uneventful. We went and found some wood and built a fire, talked for a bit, and then headed to bed with the thoughts of going fishing the next morning.Morning came and so did a beautiful start to the day. We had no intentions of hurrying, as this was a weekend to relax, fish, and get out of the house for a few days. We cooked breakfast and talked about the day ahead. Afterwards, the boys changed out of their PJ's and into their clothes. They were both pretty excited, as Jon had let them pack for themselves (for the first time) and they wanted to get to fishing as well.
As we finished cleaning up and putting things away before heading for the
lake, Brian decided he needed to go "yuckies". Jon gave him a roll of toilet paper and sent him into the woods and said he'd be there in a minute to check on him. Jon and I finished things up, and then Jon went to look for Brian.After a short search, Jon found Brian hiding behind a tree and some bushes. Jon also found that, unfortunately, Brian wasn't very aware of where his pants were in relation to how he was squatting. Needless to say, those pants never made it back in the camper. As Jon and a bottomless Brian wandered back to the camper, I couldn't help but giggle.
Jon, my best friend in the world, could only shake his head and sigh.As Jon went into the camper and grabbed Brian's duffel bag, he suddenly
realized the error of letting a 5 year old pack for himself. Brian's only other pair of "pants" was his pajama bottoms. I tried not to giggle too loudly, as this just kept getting better. Jon was pretty upset, and Brian knew it, but at the same time, Jon knew he should have checked the boys packing job.Figuring he could swipe a pair of Daniel's pants, Jon discovered he didn't have an extra pair either. Both boys had brought 1 extra pair of undies, no extra pants, 1 extra shirt, and no extra socks. So, Brian was forced to wear his pajama bottoms for the day. He wasn't real happy with that, but there wasn't anything we could do about it.
We finally managed to make it to the lake. It was a good thing we hadn't been in a hurry. After getting the boat in, we headed out for the other side of the lake. We fished for a good long time, but didn't catch anything. We went all over the lake, never catching anything. We were trying to help the boys and weren't fishing much ourselves, and the boys were having a good time anyway. Jon and I were just enjoying the time away.
We headed to the north end of the lake and drifted with the wind pushing us to the south. We had drifted for about an hour and we were in the middle of the lake. We had decided to head back to our original location. I gave the old motor a tug on the rope and heard a "twang" as she fired. The rope stayed out and wouldn't go back into the housing, so I knew something was wrong. Thankfully the motor had started, so we decided to just head in.
We got to the dock and trailered the boat. We were curious what had happened, so we pulled up a ways so as not to block the ramp and took the cover off and started looking at the motor. The boys were no longer in a good mood, as we weren't fishing, so they decided to go sit on the dock and watch the other people on the lake.
As Jon and I realized that the spring on the coil had broken and started discussing if we could fix it, Jon's favorite son Brian came walking up from the dock area with his head down. Daniel walked beside him, trying not to smile or grin. Brian said, "Dad?" Jon answered, "What?" Brian said, "I fell off the dock". As Jon and I both turned to look at Brian, he was soaked from head to toe, on the left side of his body only. The right side was completely dry.
Apparently, they had been laying on the dock rolling around and Brian took a long roll of a short dock... That was all I could take. I was laughing so hard I was doubled over. Jon on the other hand was not as amused. All he could do was sit and shake his head. He refused to look at Brian and couldn't even speak. Part of him wanted to laugh and part of him wanted to scream. So, Brian had managed to soil his only pair of pants, and now his pajamas were soaked.
We didn't catch a single fish that entire weekend and the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. Thank goodness. I don't think Jon could have taken much more.
Next page > Part 2: An unusual catch > Page 1, 2
