Fishing with my kids and grandkids has always been a favorite of mine. And here are two of my favorite stories.
Our youngest daughter, Hilary, was eight years old and fishing with me in the boat on Nesourdnahunk Lake, where we have a camp. I anchored in a good spot, and she started fishing from the front of the boat while I fished from the back. We were both fishing with the same dry fly.
Hilary caught nine nice brook trout, while I caught nothing.
She felt bad for me, so she suggested that we change places and rods, so we did. I moved to the front of the boat and picked up her rod and started fishing. Hilary moved to the back of the boat and picked up my rod.
And on her first cast, she caught a trout. Yup, kids are the best anglers.
When my grandson Vishal was six, we were up to camp and I took him to Nesourdnahunk Stream to fish. We walked through the woods to the stream and I carried him across the stream on my back. Then we hiked upstream to one of my favorite pools.
I cast the fly, hooked a trout, and handed the rod to V so he could reel it in. After I took the hook out, I told V he could release the fish. He picked it up and threw it like a football way downstream. I said, “V, I guess I need to show you how to do that!”
Fairly soon, I would cast the fly and hand the rod to V and he would hook the trout, reel it in, and release it.
V’s 25th trout was a beauty, and after he released it, he looked up at me and said, “Grampy, we are both very happy.”
Boy, he got that right!