Little man's first fish!

[JeffB]

I took advantage of Veteran's day this year and headed out to Santee Lakes with little man and the wife .I knew it would be the perfect spot since Santee just finished the new play ground plus all the other stuff the lake had to offer to entertain the crew. My wife and son had fun feeding the ducks and playing with bubbles in between getting a couple lines wet. I set up my wife with a floating rig for trout while I dropped shot for bass and/or trout with a worm. I grabbed a hold of my lucky charm( little David) and handed him the rod. While we were giving the line a shake or two, we got nailed. I held onto the rod while he reeled in the fish . We had the fish jump a few times for us. Manage to land his first large mouth, nice little one too. We snapped a few pix and sent her back on her way. I gave my son a cpl of the night crawlers to play with. I want to get him used to touching bugs and stuff, especially if he plans on being my sidekick. My wife wasn't to thrilled about that. She smacked them out of his hands.I made her give them back to me, way of transportation was a stick well extended from her body! We had a few more bites through out the remainder of the trip, but the one bass was all we caught, which well worth the trip. This was the best way to spend my first Veteran's day hands down. I can't believe it's been a yr since I departed,the Corps already. The weather was perfect too, we left before noon when the wind started to get breezy.

The week prior I sneaked out with my son on the water for about 30-45min. Short trip, but all we were looking for was one fish. I also wanted to try out my new Calcutta 400D, bad @$$ little reel for sure. I put it through the ringer with sand bass later that evening, but that's another story. So once we launched out, I took him for about a 20min adventure through the boats, down to the pier, and back up through the marina. He was having a blast. So before he got fussy, I wanted to hook up so he could catch his first fish. So I grabbed the Calcutta and threw out a 5.5" swim bait and let it hit the bottom. I got nailed right away, but the fish let loose, dropped it straight back down and it came back and hammered it. I showed my son how to reel it in and watched his little face light up ever time the fish tugged down on the line. Wasn't much of a fight against my gear, but that was alright. We peddled over to a boat to get a cpl pix before we let the little halibut go.It was cool because my son was all about touching it and stuff. He got mad when I let it go, lol. From the time we got the fish up and released it, 10min had elapsed and David started to get fussy. I trolled the fish behind the kayak during the process. We made one more cast, number two, and that was all he was having, so we headed back in. All we went out there for was,one fish and we got it on the first cast. Made for perfect outing for me.

I figure if I start him at the age I started, I can turn him into my little clone. All I have to say about the little man is !!!