I think most parents who love to fish have hopes that their little ones one day will share that passion with them and that they can all have a fun day on the water together.
That’s been my hope since we first found out that my wife was pregnant with our first child. Now, nearly 5 years later, it seems to becoming a reality, albeit in short spurts with a little fighting, a little crying, a little frustration, and a lot of memories.
For my son's 2nd birthday I got him a fly fishing practice rod. He would spend hours playing with it, and as he got older we would go catch fish in the back yard and in our house (kids make your imagination come back if you’ve lost it like I had). If your kids are anything like ours, they need their own things, and not to borrow dad’s. For our first trips together he would bring that rod along and was able to “fish” with Daddy.
Fast forward to last summer, when my son was 3.5 years old, we got him a “real” fly fishing rod. He picked up casting quickly and was able to cast far enough in order to catch a fish. I was excited, and definitely more excited than him I’m sure. At this point his sister was one and was bundled and dragged around with us on our family adventures. Last spring was similar to this year’s, and most East Slope waters south of Calgary were fishing well late June. We set off to go camp and hopefully catch a few fish. One afternoon my son and I went down to the creek as our daughter went down for her nap. I set my son up on a small little riffle, and he started casting. My hope was that with the faster current, if a fish rose to eat his fly, it would partially set itself. This apparently worked, or he set the hook, I’m not quite sure. I just remember myself hooting and hollering as he had a fish on the end of the line! I snapped a few pictures of him fighting the fish but wasn’t able to get any of him with the fish. After that he was done, he didn't want to fish anymore. Thankfully, I learned early on as a parent, you need to bring other things for kids to do. I had more beach toys in my bag than fishing stuff, so we played in the mud and gravel the rest of the afternoon.
My wife and I realized that lakes are a much better option for our kids and our sanity, as the beach is a great babysitter. So this spring I managed to pick up a small 10’ flat bottom boat that I put a little electric motor on. I thought this was a great idea and was excited once again to get the family out on the water together. Our first attempt wasn’t a success. I brought one rod on the boat, with a dog, and two kids, and apparently some “gross” granola bars. Our daughter is two, and isn’t quite able to understand the sharing concept yet. She stole the rod from my son and wouldn’t give it back. First the fight between them started, and then some tears. Then the gross granola bars. Then the dog decided to jump out of the boat and break the only rod. Thankfully they couldn’t fight over it anymore though! We headed back into shore. Lesson learned: two rods; no dog; better snacks.
Next time up we went to a favourite pike lake that I’ve managed to have some really special days on. Two rods in tow this time, no dog, and some better food (or so I hoped). As anticipated, the little rod that was setup for perch was stolen from my son by his sister. The other rod was a 6wt with a big streamer (bait fish) to catch pike with (a little too big of a setup for my son to cast). My plan was to hook into a pike and pass the rod to him to fight it. Thankfully it didn’t take long to hook into a pike, and I quickly passed the rod to my son. He fought it for a while and got it close to the boat, but it came unhooked. Success! I tried my best to hook into another one, while the kids grew impatient. Food always helps. Apparently I failed on the snack part again, and the new bars were just as bad. Once again the fighting over the smaller rod started again. Then some tears. Then back to shore. But no broken rod this time!
Fishing with kids isn’t exactly how I envisioned it when my wife was pregnant. It would be nice if they would pick up a rod and be as passionate as I am with fishing and be able to spend a full day fishing, but that’s not the case (yet). But that’s also not the point. The point is for them to get out and be exposed to nature and to the things that I love, to see things that you don’t ordinarily see and experience. Most importantly it’s to spend time together and to make memories together.
Even if the snacks are gross.