Winston's First Fish

On our recent trip to Lake Powell, Winston caught his first fish. Last year I'd bought him a little practice fishing pole with a weighted disk on the end and he's loved casting it off the back of the boat. Back in June he tripped when he was casting out and let go of the pole - it sank right away. He was so sad to lose his fishing pole and he couldn't stop thinking about it and talking about how he had wanted to catch a fish.  He started telling everyone about how his fishing poled had "drowned."

Brad and I decided to go ahead and get him a real fishing pole - hooks and all (Yikes!) and the first chance he had to use it was at Lake Powell during our July trip.  After a rainy afternoon, we were spending a quiet evening on the houseboat and Brad decided it was the perfect time to teach Winston how to fish.  Brad got his new gear all set up and explained to him the danger of the hooks and how to cast.  Winston quickly caught on and sat at the end of the dock next to our houseboat casting out and reeling it back in for about 45 minutes. 

He was just starting to lose interest and was messing around with his pole while the hook sank down in the water when all of the sudden he turned to Brad and said, "Dad, I think I caught a fish."  Sure enough, he had hooked something (Brad and I were pretty surprised too because we didn't think he would catch anything there with all the boats going by).  Brad helped him reel it in and all I could say was, "Wow, what a big fish!"  He had caught a striped bass about 16 inches long.  Winston couldn't wait to hold his first catch and was so proud of his fish.  (I'm glad I had the camera there to catch the moment)  He did get pretty upset with us when we let it go.  He wanted to keep it as a pet and then take it home so Brad could cook it on the smoker.  (I love the things he comes up with!)

He did catch another one the very next day off the back of our boat but while Brad was helping him reel it in, the fish dove back under our boat, broke the line on our prop and got away. Winston was so mad at the fish for steeling his hook - his favorite one because it was green. There's never a dull moment with Winston around. We had a great time and what an adventure for our little fisherman!