Ben Can Catch

Talks about fishing Sunday looked like they were going to fall apart.  Schedules didn't synchronize and thus Dave's two boys would have been home alone while we were out wading.  That wouldn't have been right so what to do on Sunday morning.  The idea hit me while I was running errands on Saturday.  The almost immediate call from Dave meant he thought it too; take his boys out fishing.

We didn't need to get up at O'Dark-thirty since we were fishing for Bluegills.  At nine AM both Zack and Ben looked like it was O'Dark-thirty.  They were up but didn't look completely awake; I can relate some days.

Dave and I tied on slip floats, hooks, and split-shot to one of Dave's rods and the boy's two Zebco 202s then loaded kids and gear into the car and headed for a local pond.

The bluegill action wasn't fast and furious but some largemouth were eating Dave's 4" Yum Dinger plastic worm.  Two bass in quick succession ate the watermelon colored stick worm.  While the boys were watching the bass their father was catching Ben's float went down and stayed there awhile.  Once it was noticed we couldn't see Ben's float as much slack was reeled out of the line as the 202 could muster but the circle hook didn't find home and the float returned to the surface without a worm.

We rotated around the pond and I started catching bass about two and a half feet down near the shore.  That was when Ben started yelling Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.

This time he was watching when his float went down.  Ben knew that he was to watch for it to go down but once the float was down the excitement in his brain didn't let him comprehend what to do next.

"Reel Ben!" instructed Dave.

Reeling like a madman the Zebco Spincast reel caught the line.  The crazed reeling of a six year old finally got the line tight and the circle hook found lip.

After removing the fish and baiting the hook Ben was that much more ready to have the worm cast to the middle of the pond.  Once again he was a patient bobber-watcher until the now familiar chorus of Dad, Dad, Dad, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy occurred when his float went down again.

This time Dave, Zack, and I all said in unison:  REEL BEN!!!  

Bluegill number two proved to be the patience breaker for Ben.  He was excited to catch fish but his bobber-watching patience had ended.  

We got our gear together and walked the short walk back to the cars.  I learned a few things from our outing yesterday; Ben takes direction well and very literally sometimes, Zack can hit me in the neck with Crab Apples from ten paces, and Ben Can Catch!