A Natural is Born

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at getting Norm’s nephew on the water, today was the day. Adam was going to have the time of his life reeling in all kinds of fish, all day long. The weather was an important factor setting this day up as we wanted to have a decent one with preferably no precipitation and we had it. We even had sunshine, warm air temps in the upper 70’s and a nice wind of 5 to 10 knots from the west. Who could ask for more! We started off trolling in an area I had some success in and it didn’t take long before Adam was battling his first of many fish. This one was a pike however and we released it immediately. The next few fish were either walleye or smallmouth bass and he had officially managed to get a « Grand Slam » before 10:00 A.M. After a few hours in this location we decided to relocate to another area with bigger & better hopes for more fish. As luck would have it, the first reel to fire also was followed by a second one and we had a double. Yeah, Norm got to land one too! We were greeted with a couple of 5 pound northerns and it began. For the next few hours there were pike & walleye being caught every 10 minutes or so and several doubles were involved. Most of the walleye were in the 2.5 to 3.5 pound range with a couple of fours and one over 5 pounds. It was all good as Adam was reeling in fish one after the other! When things slowed down a bit, we changed it up to casting for bass and went to another area not too far away. Adam hadn’t really fished before this day and everything he was doing was for the first time. I taught him the basics with a spinning rod and within 5 minutes he was casting like a veteran. I couldn’t believe just how comfortable he was with this outfit in his hands and how he made the adjustment from the level wind reels with right hand retrieve to the spinning reels and a left hand retrieve. This kid’s a natural! He even landed a couple of bass on his own with soft plastics and lost another big one when it hit him too close to the boat. We casted to the smallies for a little while longer then decided to call it a day when the winds kicked up a bit too much to be able to fish the area successfully. This may have been Adam’s first experience with fishing, but I know it won’t be his last. As long as he has a « Fishaholic » as an uncle, there will be more. I guess I know what his uncle will be getting him for a Christmas present this year!!!