My best day fishing...

[whiskey]

I have had lots of good days fishing. I grew up on a large TVA lake and fished a lot as a kid. We had good large mouth fishing, good small mouth fishing, good crappie and good striper fishing just out my door. I had a stocked trout stream 5 miles from my house and my parents took me deep sea fishing just about every year. I lived in Alaska for 3 years and caught every species of salmon, caught big halibut, cod and sea bass. I lived on the gulf coast of south Florida for seven years. I got to fish the flats for redfish, sea trout, bonefish, flounder and snook. I got to fish Boca Grande pass for huge Tarpon. I fished piers for giant gag grouper and king mackerel. Of course there was the famous south Florida large mouth bass fishing too. I have been blessed to fish some the most sought after water in the North America, but Saturday was without a doubt my best day fishing.

My daughter and I were fishing off a dock on the lake I grew up on. The lake is a couple hours south of where we live now, but my mom still lives there and we were having family get-together Saturday night, so I figured we would arrive early and do some fishing. The weather was beautiful, partly sunny and 70 degrees. We had out ultralight poles and a bucket of minnows and were hoping to get enough crappie for dinner.

Well it turned out that the crappie weren't bitting great. I caught a couple small one and we had hit a slow period with no bites. My daughter shoved her rod under a boat cleat and started texting on her cell phone. Then all of a sudden I heard her drag screaming. She grabbed the pole and and started yelling for me to help her. I talked her through fighting the fish and had her work it up slow to the edge of the dock. We didn't have a net, so I laid on my belly and this was what I pulled out of the lake...

A 4 pound small mouth bass.

I couldn't believe she landed this fish with an ultralight and a #4 crappie hook. She started telling me how I should be fishing and that her method was the best. I told her it was just luck that she caught that fish while crappie fishing. She re-baited her hook and shoved the rod back under the boat cleat. We called my wife and told her the story and several family members came down from the house to see her fish. Everyone went back up to the house and it was just her and I on the dock again. Then I hear the drag screaming again! She grabbed the pole and the situation repeated itself. This time I reached down and pulled up....

Another 4 pound small mouth!

OK, so lighting does strike twice. Well actually it probably would have struck three times, but the third time was NOT a charm. The third time she managed to get a big strike on her ultralight pole shoved under the boat cleat resulted in a lost fishing pole. I am sure it was another big small mouth. She was upset about losing the pole, but the two nice fished just about overshadowed it. A great day for sure.

[DaveS]

It sounds like ya'll had an awesome time! Good job Lana.....I'm going to try her technique one day this week. I'm heading out for some Crappie also.

[Guest Appalachian]

Good stuff man, dont get much better than that does it ? small mouth are serious fighters, betcha she had her hands full.

[whiskey]

Good stuff man, dont get much better than that does it ? small mouth are serious fighters, betcha she had her hands full.

She caught these just down the hill from you. We were fishing on Tims Ford.

Edited March 21, 2011 by whiskey

[gunrunner32]

I can't even begin to tell you how many poles of mine that my Grandfather lost. In highschool he and I used to go to pay lakes in and around Cincinnati and enter the carp and catfish competitions (biggest fish of the hour, biggest fish of the night, biggest fish of the week). There were numerous surf rods that he forgot to set the drag on before putting them in the PVC pipes I used for rod holders. Good on her though managing to get 2 before losing the pole, I guess third time is the charm for the fish...but now he's dragging around a fishing pole. I can't wait for my daughter to get old enough to go fishing and shooting.

[Sidewinder]

Looks like she took care of the fish for the evening meal! She might just turn into one of those pro fishermen/fisherladies we see on the Outdoor Channel! Congrats!

[ShaunM]

The are some nice smallies.

[Jasongar8]

Great story! Good on you for getting her out and showing her that the outdoors can be fun.

[memphismason]

That is awesome! Great time and story.

[KahrMan]

Nice brownies!!!

[roverboy]

She's got me beat. My heaviest smallmouth was 3 1/2 lb.

[Guest Appalachian]

I'm not even gonna tell what my "record" small mouth was, just a...yeah she caught a very nice small mouth didnt she. (%@#!*)

[DaveS]

Hey Whiskey, "buddy ol' pal, buddy".....how 'bout some GPS coordenance to that fish'hole of yur'uns????

[oldogy]

I am sure it just does not get any better for you and your daughter.

oldogy

[Guest mosinon]

Crap man, I'd have to ground her. You can't have your kids showing you up like that!

[whiskey]

Hey Whiskey, "buddy ol' pal, buddy".....how 'bout some GPS coordenance to that fish'hole of yur'uns????

You can't get there from here.

[LagerHead]

Ok, so text while fishing. Got it.

[Caster]

Man I used to love fishin' fer small jaw. Used to catch crawfish in the creek and take them to Dale Hollow. A man could get his shoulder dislocated doing that!

Your girl did very well, certainly something to be proud of.

[monkeylizard]

Great story. I love how kids sometimes stumble on some method that the seasoned pros say will never work. When my kid brother was about 5 or so, my dad was taking us fishing. We stopped at Wally World to get him a rod/reel of his own. Dad had picked out some decent setup, but my brother would have none of that. He spotted a light blue and white Mickey Mouse one and that was what he wanted. He cried and whatnot as 5 year olds do until dad gave in, despite dad's repeated assurance that it would break the first time he used it. More fish were caught on that Mickey Mouse setup than every other rod/reel combined that day. Dad eventually started taking it out with him for himself. We discovered that 3' rod was perfect for casting in under low branches and from overgrown banks w/o hanging the line in the branches.