First Fish

[EccentricRuss]

My son caught his first fish today!  And then he caught three more for good measure.  All four were panfish.

Used a Zebco 202 rod/reel combo, red worms on Aberdeen hook and an unknown brand bobber...brings back memories.

Russ

[harryk3616]

great start, don't stop now, more fishing with his dad.

[floating doc]

Wonderful news! Great way to end the summer.

[handi2]

Great picture. I used a many 202's in my time..

[alantani]

very nice!!!!!!

[foakes]

Wow, great times, Russ --

Alan -- this may be a possible for pic of the month?

Best,

Fred

[Alto Mare]

Very cool Big guy, yes you are the bomb.
Those nice fish appear to be worth $2.50 each, your dad owes you $10 .
Thanks for sharing those with us...nice job!

He's hooked for life! ...I see photo of the month.

[the rockfish ninja]

Great stuff!!!

[gstours]

  Yessiree;  thats some good fried fish I see......that boy will be your friend for life now!!!  he,ll be diggin worms and begging.... I still remember catchen 6-8 inchers,  thats what summer is for,,,,, keep the kids out of the malls. great photo.

[Marcq]

Yup!! That's a nice first 

Marc..

[Keta]

Nice!

[MFB]

They say you can always remember your first fish, well done.

Rgds

Mark

[HOLEINTHEWATER]

 GREAT MEMORIES FOR ALL. USED ZEBCO'S  FOR YEARS, UNTIL I GOT INTO BAIT CASTERS. STILL USED ONE FOR CATCHING MY GILLS FOR BAIT.

[Big Tim]

Bravo!!!!

[EccentricRuss]

You all are very kind, thank you.

As his father, I may have been happier than him.  I certainly talked about it all day as we visited friends afterward.

One of the things that we forget is that when we are young, these "firsts" are higher stakes events.  As an adult, if I go out and fail to catch a fish, I can take my lumps and figure out what to do better next time; my six year old son was devastated when he couldn't catch fish his first time out.  The emotional spectrum is so much greater for a child.

Twice yesterday, the fish had him close to tears.  The first was when they would bite and he'd jerk up on the rod and tangle himself up in the slack line.  Three of the four fish he did catch "flew" out of the water.  Who needs a net when you bypass the reel altogether and pull the fish out of the water entirely?  The second close call was on fish #4.  He started to tire out and lose focus.  I looked over at his position and asked him, "Where's you bobber?"  He looked out and said, "I don't know."  He started to reel in and the line was tight.  He started to get upset because he snagged his tackle or maybe a turtle took his tackle under.  I told him to calm down and give it a second.  As he continued to meltdown, the fourth fish came out of hiding under the rock it was using and ran again!  Fish on!  The excitement came back to him and we landed the fish. 

That is the excitement of a lifetime,  a child's excitement at conquering a small piece of nature for a small period of time.

Russ