My son and I started fishing about a year and a half ago. He's eight, so it's perfect. He thinks fishing all the time. New lures are his hobby. Previous to his interest, I hadn't fished since I was a kid, but it's all coming back to me now. When I feel a solid tug on my line, part of me is his age, and the dad half is excited just because I know he will be.
Tim is wise beyond his years. I once asked him why he liked fishing, and his response was, "Because when I'm fishing, I don't have to remember anything." No homework to remember, and no house etiquette to remember. You can just be yourself. He also knows that catching or not catching, there is a huge reward just being out in nature and beyond the cubicle world of buildings.
Since we've been fishing, Tim has caught all the biggest fish. On Christmas Eve, we went to Windy Point at Lake Travis here in Austin. The lake was down, and we found a point from which to fish. Using a yellow Jitterbug and a steady retrieve, Tim hooked up with our biggest bass yet. The rod bent way over, and he set the hook. It took him a few minutes to land the fish, and when he was done, he happily complained that his hands hurt. We didn't have a scale, but the fish was about 16 inches long.
The rest of the day yielded nothing, but it didn't matter. The whole day, and in fact the whole month was a fishing success because of that one big bass.
