I remember it as if it were yesterday. Those wonderful words, “Daddy take me fishing.”
It was in June of 1993, my daughter Brittany asked me to take her fishing. Not owning a boat at that time, we fished mostly farm ponds and streams. Brittany was six-years-old now and had been fishing for about four years. We loaded up our gear and headed to a farm pond where we had caught a few fish before. I pulled the truck up by the pond and let the tailgate down, putting our poles and tackle on the tailgate. I told Brittany to pick out a plastic worm, “This color is pretty (pumpkin seed/ chartreuse tail), I want to use that color worm,” she said. I put it on for her and she cast it out. Before I could turn around, she screamed, “Daddy, I’ve got one.” I turned around and sure enough she had a decent bass up on the bank, about 15 inches. We looked at him and tossed him back. I fixed her worm back on the hook and she threw it out again. She screamed again, “I’ve got another one Daddy.”
This kid was hot; she caught and released six nice keeper bass on six casts before her dad could even get bait tied on. She ended up with eight keepers that day and her Dad, two little ones!
I’ve had success fishing over my lifetime and do have some wonderful memories but his one is one I’ll always cherish as does my daughter, Brittany.