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July 10, 2009

Grandchildren hunger to go fishing | TOM LAVIS

BY TOM LAVIS

TLAVIS@TRIBDEM.COM

Most people who know me are familiar with my passion for fishing.

A new era was begun by introducing our grandchildren to the relaxing sport I love.

Or so I thought.

Lauren, 6, and her brother, Parker, who will celebrate his fifth birthday this month, stayed over one night last week. It was a perfect opportunity to get them out on our boat after I got home from work.

The first order of business was adjusting their life preservers.

“I don’t like the blue and yellow one,” Lauren protested. “It’s too tight.”

I knew there was no use arguing and switched her to the orange one.

“This is old and it smells,” she said.

We hadn’t pulled the boat out of the garage and already we had issues.

This is when I reminded myself that the key to taking a child fishing is patience.

I realized the attention span of a child is short and planned to be out for a couple of hours.

Grandma was busy loading extra clothes, a cooler, tackle boxes and a bag of snacks into the truck as I hooked up the boat.

Our first stop was at the bait shop to buy worms.

“Let me see them,” Parker said as I got back into the truck.

“When we get to the lake,” Grandma said, knowing that they most likely would end up on the floor of the truck if she passed them back.

As I pulled into the boat launch, both grandchildren wanted to get out and watch.

Their barrage of questions distracted me from my regular routine. I just wanted to get the boat off of the trailer.

As I was about to pull the trailer out, I couldn’t remember if I put the drain plug back into the boat. I got my answer fairly quickly as I noticed water covering the floor.

“The boat’s sinking,” I yelled, forgetting how impressionable children can be at such a tender age.

After a few quick instructions to my wife about keeping the kids back while I put the boat back on the trailer, drained the water and inserted the plug, we were ready to go.

“Are we going to sink?” Parker asked, as he hesitated boarding.

After Grandma’s reassurance – she tightened his life vest at his request – he climbed aboard.

I no sooner started the outboard when Parker announced that he was hungry.

They had eaten dinner about an hour before and he was clamoring for Grandma to give him some goodies.

He had two chocolate bars and a granola bar eaten before we baited a hook.

I decided to go into a back bay to get out of the wind. Nightfall was hours away and the cove took on an eerie atmosphere.

“It’s spooky and I’m scared,” Lauren said.

“The only thing you should be afraid of is Parker eating all the snacks,” I said.

Once we began fishing, the kids concentrated on their bobbers.

It didn’t take long for some bluegills to provide action.

Surprisingly, Lauren, who expressed fear of the dark, was eager to handle the worms and touch the fish.

After a million questions – ranging from what is a fish warden to do fish sleep – they were ready to leave.

Parker expressed concern about getting home in time to take a bath and have his evening snack.

Snack?

I re-evaluated my key to taking children fishing. It’s not patience, it’s a well-stocked cooler.

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