An Eventful Evening of Fishing With my Grandson

Getting to fish with my Grandson last weekend was a hoot to say the least. It brought back so many memories of some of my first trips with my son and daughter. We lived in Tupelo Mississippi at the time and we would go out to the local park on Sunday’s to walk the trails and of course fish for the bluegills that were stocked in the small 3-acre pond.

Well, all of those memories came back to me when Pops and his Dad carried Bryson out for his first fishing trip Saturday afternoon. His Dad told me on the way to the small pond that I was in charge of letting Bryson land his first fish. I had been talking to him for some time about this memorable trip and he was ready and pumped to go, to say the least.

We begin the journey by digging for night crawlers or red worms in the backyard. The name didn’t matter to Bryson; all he wanted to do was grab the worm as soon as we unearthed one and pull it apart. I kept telling him we needed the whole worm to make a nice meal for the fish, but his theory was that if you break the worm into, it would make 2 baby worms. So with that sound explanation in mind, we continue to dig for worms until we had enough for the evening fishing trip. Upon arriving at the little pond I notice there was some small bluegill still bedding in the shallows near the bank. So I showed Bryson how to bait the hook and we made our first cast towards the beds. I had explained to him that once the bobber goes under he needed to start reeling because that meant he had a fish on. We were lucky to be fishing in a pond that had lots of bluegills, because, within a few seconds, Bryson had his first fish with his Pops. I must admit it was a teaching experience for him to get the hang of reeling that first fish in, but after the first catch, he got better.

We battled mosquitoes, gnats, and extremely high humidity, all afternoon, but Bryson was a trooper and so was his Dan and Pops. For me, the elements were minor on this trip, because I got to teach my Grandson about the joys of fishing and how to enjoy the outdoors. I am looking forward to our first fly rod outing when he gets a little older.

One of many bluegills fisherman Bryson landed for the afternoon.

Is this little guy excited or what????? He is already asking Pops when are we going again.
Hope all Dad's have a great Father's Day!!!