A largemouth, 3 spotteds, 2 bluegills and a pumpkinseed

I had a chance to drive out to the country, at Plantersville, TX, a few days ago. The weather was chilly but tolerable. Weather was dry and the sun came out once in a while when the puffy clouds were not watching.

The cabin was cozy and about 20 feet away is a nice little pond where we could fish. Half an hour after arriving there, we got the grill ready, got a little campfire up next to the pond, some marshmallow on sticks; let my wife and the baby enjoy the melted marshmallow.

At the mean time my 3 year old and I have a different plan. We pull out our fishing rod, string them up, set the bubbles, some bullet lead, fixed some bread balls on the hooks and cast in. We waited, and waited, recasted but for about half an hour without a bite.

Time to improvise. We caught some frogs, but they are just too cute to be used as bait. So we romped around and caught some very active grasshoppers and decided to try them to lure the fish.

It works. In the next hour, my son and I caught 7 fishes. 1 largemouth bass, 3 spotted basses, 2 bluegills and a pumpkinseed. The first fish I caught was a bluegill. My son was so excited that I decided to let him reel the fish in again. He end up “reel it in” 3 times. Poor fish. I did help the bluegill to get water through its gill before fully released it though.

My 3 year old son did “catch” two more fish, but unfortunately he did not know how to “set the hook”. So he reeled them in and lost both of them at the surface. It’s fun nonetheless.

I have not fish in 3 years... yes, my son is 3 years old... and that's the direct relation to that. And to bring him fishing and caught fishes and seeing his eyes lite up, was one of the greatest feeling in life.