© 2020 Aaron Atkinson

Fishing with Finny

Growing up, I wanted to fish. I watched fishing shows on television. I asked my dad what species swam in every lake, river and marsh we’d drive past. I read about fishing, dreamed about fishing, and loved every minute I got to go fishing.

The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

Finn has been practicing his casting in the front yard over the past few weeks. He’s got it pretty well figured out along with the cadence of reeling and setting the hook.

This past weekend we went fishing for the first time this spring. I was tired after about an hour, but Finn wanted to stay and so we fished for two and a half hours. If he had his way, we’d still be fishing.

I was still rigging up my rod long after he’d picked out the small chartreuse jig he wanted to use in the stained pond water, as he made a wonderful 20 yard cast, started reeling, set the hook with a mighty jerk, and squealed in wide-eyed delight, “Daddy, I’ve got one!”

His first fish of the year was a whopper of a bluegill. Throughout the afternoon he also caught a largemouth and a crappie all on his own. And he helped me reel in another dozen. When I was Finn’s age I was a little scared to hold fish. Their sharp gills and spines intimidated me. Not Finn. He can’t get enough fish slime on his hands.

When he’d hit a dry spell, he would poke through my lures and pick out a new one to try. I don’t think he noticed that I realized he put the used lures into his tackle box instead of back into mine. He changed lures a lot both because the fish we’re biting and because it gave him a chance to add new treasures to his collection.

That evening while getting ready for bed, Laura asked him to tell her about his fishing trip. “I just can’t Mommy. To talk about fishing I have to think about fishing. And when I think about fishing I really just want to go fishing again.”

It sounds like someone else I used to know.

Fun times ahead.

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