I finally got out on the water, and what a gorgeous day it was. I took the wife and my four-year-old boy Hunter Crappie fishing for the day. The fishing wasn’t anything to go nuts about, but the company was great.
This was Hunter’s first full fishing outing, and he did quite well. We fished main lake weed beds but only came up with a dozen Crappie or so—and some of those were pretty small. We did keep enough for a small feed though. One thing I did that saved my bacon—I brought the Rocket Fishing Rod. Since the fishing was slow, now and then Hunter would pick up the RFR and blast away. He didn’t even care if he caught anything. And, as a matter of fact, he didn’t even try. He just wanted to shoot it.
Be careful if you let your kids use this rig, though. He accidentally blasted me in the hand when I wasn’t looking—at least I think it was an accident!
The best part of the day was our “shore lunch.” Usually, I don’t like to stop while I’m fishing, but I knew that single H would need a break (and the wife would love one, too). We unloaded the Coleman Roadside Grill from the truck, threw on the grub, and were chowing down in no time. Once I got into a lunchtime state of mind—and not my usual fishing state of mind—I had a great time cooking and being entertained by the kid!
You’ll notice in the cooking picture that there’s an old Coleman Oscar cooler there. I bought that baby when I was working construction probably fifteen to twenty years ago, and it still works as well as the day I got it—some things you just don’t need to replace.
Anyways, it was a great day in the outdoors, and one that was well needed.
Pete Bowman
