Second Cast Of The Season!

Due to some other pressing issues, I’ve been unable to get in any fly fishing this spring until this evening. My good friend Ernie Kalwa called me up to remind he was heading out to the ponds at Humber Springs for a couple of hours this evening along with my other good friend, Arron Varga.

I figured it would be a perfect evening to get on the water for the first time this year and also take along the “wee man,” David.

David, who is not yet six years old, can’t quite handle a fly rod – but no problem. He can strip line. And his line stripping method was the secret. We stood on the casting platform together, me with my lovely Meiser System II rod and DI 3 line on the spool. David likes the black leech pattern he helped me tie up, so that’s what we tied on the end of the leader.

First cast – ahh.. this is what I remember! I love that Meiser rod! I started stripping in line and David decided he was going to help. “Absolutely! Go ahead and we’ll fish together with one rod.”

So it was quite the random stripping pattern – but that was fine – it was very nice to have him enjoying this time with me.

Second cast – David starts stripping the line for me again – and next thing, a solid hook up and the line started running back out through David’s hand. He looked up with bright eyes and a smile and yelled, “Is that a fish, Dad?”

“You bet it is!”

And that fish fought hard. I’m not sure of its length but it was quite a bit larger than the 19 incher we caught later. The rod was bent almost double and David was excitedly pointing to it and when the fish jumped, each time David’s eyes grew wide open as he exclaimed, “Wow!” The scrappy rainbow trout must have cleared the water a good five times during the fight – pretty sweet for the young man that I am… and even sweeter for a 5 1/2 year old to watch.

This went on for over five minutes – and every time I’d get that trout (with David’s help) close to the casting platform, the fish would take off on yet another run.

Finally, with another jump into the air, the fish managed to lose the hook – but nevertheless it was some exciting minutes for a dad and his son, that’s for sure.

And the second cast of the season – it felt great to have a fish on the other end.

We continued casting from the platform – at one point David got a little tired of stripping line so he got into his lunch box that we had packed with some snacks and watched the swallows diving and darting close to the water as they ate hatching insects.

Finally, another fish on! This 19 incher fought pretty hard too – and we almost lost it as we both held onto the net – I attempted to help guide David with the net. It was a brand new net with a “button” that held the handle – and with both our hands on the net, one of us must have pressed the button. There we are with this fish close to the platform, the net in the water… and the next thing I’m holding a handle of a net while watching the net itself sink to the bottom of the pond. And I had a sinking feeling another fish was going to be lost.

But together, David and I managed to bring the trout to hand – and this one will be lunch or dinner tomorrow.

David told me that he had a great time! He decided that fighting fish was “like playing tug of war, Dad.”

I think we’ve got a real angler on our hands here!