“Sweeeeeet!”
So the other day, the “Wee Man” begged me to take him fishing. I knew I could use a few hours away from the office and out near water, so I agreed he didn’t need to beg me at all. But, I did need to get him a new fishing rod.
The short “little kid” rods are a pile of crap. I don’t know what the point of any stores selling them is. A little kid needs a short rod and a reel that is easy to use – and you’d hope they would last more than a few fishing outings. You’d hope. They sure don’t make kids rods and reels like they used to. The first rod and reel that my father bought me lasted three decades with some of my older boys even using it until finally, the all metal but light weight reel broke. The plastic crappy reels that come with children’s “kits” are… well.. crap.
David isn’t quite ready for a fly rod yet – maybe next year, so in the meantime I thought it would be easy to find him a rod in the 4 foot length, with a decent reel that would do him a year or two. The only thing I could find at the shop I was at (other than the plastic crap) was a 5 foot spinning rod and reel. I was a bit concerned that he would not be able to handle that length of rod, especially with a spinning reel – but figured we might as well give it our best shot.
Although it is fly fishing only at the club I sometimes head to due to it’s proximity to my home, I figured it would be a great place to have David try some spinning rod casting from the dock. And instead of tying on a hook or other lure, I simply attached a good sized weight to the end of his line.
After demonstrating how to cast a spinning rod/reel setup, David was all set to give it a try! Awkwardly, he tried to hold the rod in his right hand, pull the line up from the bail and had problems turning the bail over… and his first cast was a huge mess of line and the weight at the bottom of his feet. David laughed and laughed… while I worried that this was not going to be so successful.
Realizing that I had forgotten David was left handed, I quickly changed the retrieve on the reel and David excitedly tried to cast the rod again after the mess was untangled.
A cast of ten feet. David wasn’t fazed in the least.
“Practice makes perfect, right Daddy?”
“You got it son,” admiring his unwillingness to give up at the first signs that this was going to take a bit more work than he anticipated. And with the concentration and focus of a zen warrior, David kept at it until he could cast that lead weight 50 feet straight out in front of him! And that didn’t take him long at all to figure out his timing of his cast and his release.
After a while of helping him with some pointers and seeing as he was quite enjoying simply casting a weight into the water and then retrieving it, I decided I’d set up my fly rod and have a few casts myself. And I couldn’t help but smile as after every cast of David’s, I heard a “Sweeeeet! Daddy, that was a great cast, wasn’t it?” And sure enough, they were!
A couple of hours later of both of us casting, lots of laughs and banter and no fish for me, the temperature was getting downright chilly and I was starving. We should have taken along something to eat but I never anticipated that David would be so content to simply cast and retrieve for so long. But I figured he did need to get some supper into him.
“Hey David, we should probably get going.”
“Ok Dad, but… just a few more casts first, ok?”
Yes, he’s an angler! With a satisfied and happy smile on my face, I of course replied, “You betcha, David. A few more casts! We always need to have a few more before we go home.”
We’ll be heading out somewhere Saturday afternoon where it’s not fly only, and this time, he’ll have a lure or a hook with a worm on the end of his line.
As David would say, “Sweeeeet!”
 