A Portrait: Fathers and Sons Camp Out 2009

wg3 very much wanted to go this year. I firmly believe his words were designed to cause me as much pain as possible and it was very difficult to leave him. But he's very energetic and I want him were I can see him because of the water, the fire and the snakes. And so dg5 and I went off together with promises of a camp out in 2010 that would include us all. It was all pretty quiet, which is fine with me. But there was one fishing story.

I am trying to teach dg5 to fish. Last year at a stocked fishing event he won a Sponge Bob pole. It was a crappy pole and after only a few hours it gave up the ghost. In the beginning though the water was churning with fish. We had two problems, too much slack in our line and a slow response time to set the hook. Essentially, we were feeding the fish.

My instructions???? "When the bobber drops yank your pole back over your head to set the hook...and don't hit me." When I think about it the don't hit me part is pretty stupid. I just tried to stay close enough to help, but far enough away to have time to duck.

Four other Fathers and their Sons were there a day early with us and while we were fishing and having no luck another Father close by called over to us, "Hey Lydick, do you want to let your son reel this fish in?" After a quick glance at each other we walked their way and dg5 did exactly as he was instructed, the bobber dropped and he yanked. If I had told him there is no need to yank after the hook is set the fish would not have exited the water in a wide arc over everyone's head and landed in the forest. It didn't matter to him, it was just as exciting as anything else.