I am never one to push taking up fishing to my kids – sure there have been times when I have happened to have a rod around on certain occasions like holidays, however I don’t bang on about them taking it up. I have a few reasons – most of the guys I know that have older kids that do not go with them it is because they forced them when they were younger and the ones that are passionate it just so happens they were neglected – so I keep it simple by not discouraging them but not full on jumping at them to come.
My eldest and I usually go swimming on a Monday evening however I mentioned I might head around for an hour to the local pond. He asked if he could come instead of swimming and I thought it would be a good idea. Turns out it was not the best of conditions, cold and bright even though it was 7pm.
We shared a rod – I was using my 5 weight Sage SLT and was letting him retrieve the fly after I had cast for him..
“Can I cast?” he would ask every now and again however I did not want to spoil it for him so recommended we continue doing what we were doing. I told him that we would have one last cast and that sometimes it was more about getting out and having some fishing time as opposed to catching time (you know, the usual shite we tell ourselves when we blank) when suddenly he said that he had caught something.
Turns out he had caught a lovely wee trout which put up a fair old scrap before being safely returned.
I was very pleased and so was he I think!