Fishing with kids is the best

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!

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.