Took the boys down to a Pierce County lake yesterday. It'd been a while since getting them out on the water (too long), so we were planning on going regardless of what the weather was going to do. But what originally looked like a really wet Sunday turned out to be absolutely perfect November fishing weather.
Stoke was high on the way down.
As we were getting rods rigged up, I asked them to look thru a few boxes of flies to pick out what they wanted to use. One box in particular had a lot of very bright colorful flies - my oldest asked, "what are these called". Now, when you're speaking to a 6 year old and an 11 year old, there are just times you know you're going to get a laugh - this was one of those times. "Boobies" I responded. "Those are called boobies". And cue the laughter. So of course they both picked boobies as their fly of choice. Rigged them each up with a fast sinking line and off we went.
Didn't take long before we were into fish. It was pretty much non stop action for the next few hours. While our ratio of fish hooked to fish landed wasn't very high, we managed to net quite a few fish most of which were in the 17"-20" range. Which was a hoot for the kids on a fly rod. We hooked into one fish in particular that was an absolute tank, but it wasn't meant to be as it shook the hook on a jump right at the boat.
I realized as we were trolling around how great boobies are for young kids.
We talked about the right and wrong way to hold a fish (they were both doing this weird cradle/fish hug move that was not ideal). Made good progress on that front.
We also covered how to effectively long arm a fish for max size effect in photos. My oldest is a natural.
Overall a great day on the water w/ the boys. Plenty of action to keep them busy and focused on fishing and the weather couldn't have been better. Was really pleased with how things worked out with the boobies, will definitely start there next time I take them out. I'm not sure why I didn't try it sooner, but man it made fishing a lot more fun not having to strip in all the rods every time we stopped to check for weeds and reset.
Stoke was high on the way down.
As we were getting rods rigged up, I asked them to look thru a few boxes of flies to pick out what they wanted to use. One box in particular had a lot of very bright colorful flies - my oldest asked, "what are these called". Now, when you're speaking to a 6 year old and an 11 year old, there are just times you know you're going to get a laugh - this was one of those times. "Boobies" I responded. "Those are called boobies". And cue the laughter. So of course they both picked boobies as their fly of choice. Rigged them each up with a fast sinking line and off we went.
Didn't take long before we were into fish. It was pretty much non stop action for the next few hours. While our ratio of fish hooked to fish landed wasn't very high, we managed to net quite a few fish most of which were in the 17"-20" range. Which was a hoot for the kids on a fly rod. We hooked into one fish in particular that was an absolute tank, but it wasn't meant to be as it shook the hook on a jump right at the boat.
I realized as we were trolling around how great boobies are for young kids.
- They have a fun name
- They are colorful
- When you have to stop rowing because (they have to pee, someone catches a fish, someone gets weeds on their fly, to grab snacks, one of them somehow gets a tangle even though we're just trolling, etc.) it actually isn't that much of a hindrance as the other lines can just sink. In fact, we had quite a few hits both while stopped and right as we started to move again after a long stop. I usually troll leaches with them, which tends to result in a lot of weeds and log snags when we stop and the flies are allowed to sink. Not at all an issue w/ the boobies.
- They're quick and easy to tie, so losing them is no big deal, and the kids can tie them.
We talked about the right and wrong way to hold a fish (they were both doing this weird cradle/fish hug move that was not ideal). Made good progress on that front.
We also covered how to effectively long arm a fish for max size effect in photos. My oldest is a natural.
Overall a great day on the water w/ the boys. Plenty of action to keep them busy and focused on fishing and the weather couldn't have been better. Was really pleased with how things worked out with the boobies, will definitely start there next time I take them out. I'm not sure why I didn't try it sooner, but man it made fishing a lot more fun not having to strip in all the rods every time we stopped to check for weeds and reset.
