Top this! (Darn kids!)

Paddlefish · 07-03-2002, 07:45 AM

Now one of my sons has outfished me in a way I may never be able to top. :depressed:

When trouting the higher lakes I've often outfitted kids with one of those clear plastic casting bubbles, followed by a lengthy leader and a fly of some sort. They can easily make long casts from the bank, usually get as much action as anybody, and it gives them a lot of confidence in the ability of a fly to catch fish.

One of my kids was doing just that, and catching a few brookies. I suggested a small yellow marabou streamer, as "brook trout seem to like the color yellow."

We rigged him up and he started walking out the semi-floating log which was his dock and casting platform, with the 5-foot-long leader trailing below his rod tip.

You guessed it.

The fly trailed in the water alongside the log and a scrappy brook trout nailed it.

Now the kid can claim that he caught a fish BEFORE his first cast. How am I gonna top that? :whazzup: :grin:

Grant Scheele · 07-03-2002, 07:47 AM

That's great!

My dad used to claim that he hooked a trout on his back cast once. He basically was admitting to being a terrible fly caster.

Troller · 07-03-2002, 08:06 AM

Many years ago when I was about 10 years old fishing the green river in king county wa. for rainbow trout they would average about 16 - 20 inches. I ran out of bait and climbed down off the rock I was fishing from and collected up a periwinkle from the bottom. Peeled one open put it on my hook and set my pole back on the rock and climbed back up picked the rod up and their was a 8 inch trout on it. I remember being so mad cause all that work I had done to get down and then get back up to find a little trout on the end of my pole. Then their was the time I hooked a 8 pound stealhead in 6 inches of water two feet from my foot. You can get really lucky when your a kid. Even sometimes when you are older.

Floater · 07-03-2002, 08:16 AM

The wife and I took our two kids to Prineville Resevoir a few years back just to have some fun and get away for the weekend. After catching our rainbows, bullheads and even a *********, we started looking for crappie. We started catching so many that I had to put my pole down becuase I didn't have time to fish (I was the only one taking fish off the hooks). Wellll, my pole is leaning against the gunwale and the jigs are not even in the water and I was having crappie jump out of the water and bite their way into a good hook. A couple times of this and I had to put my pole away. I wasn't fishing and I was still catching fish. We had sooooo much fun.

Artwo · 07-03-2002, 08:52 AM

Troller,
When I was a kid we use to fish the upper South Santiam for trout allot. One of our favorite baits was Periwinkles. We would put on our cut-offs and tennis shoes and walk the river picking up periwinkles, peel them open and fish our way downstream. Those were some fun times.

On another occasion, same river, one day we were using Pauskie red eggs and catching fish right and left. We ran out of eggs and noticed that the huckelberries were ripe and red. We put on a couple huckleberries and if was fish on again. We caught fish on the berries for the rest of the day..................and ate quite a few as well.

chuck 'n' duck · 07-03-2002, 11:34 PM

A buddy of mine was fishing Mann Lake a couple of years ago. The fishing was so good that they weren't even casting. They would just hand the leader out the tip of the fly rod and drag the fly back and forth in the water at arms length (the water is murky there, so no worry of spooky fish). He even hooked fish while his rod was lying in the water and he was reviving a fish that he just caught.

CnD

Salmon Stryker · 07-03-2002, 11:50 PM

Just after my daughters 1st birthday we took her to wizard falls hatchery to show her the fish. I was kneeling with her right on the edge of the pond where they keep the brooders showing her the big lunkers laying about 10 feet away. She was munching on her favorite snack "cheerios" when she dropped one right on the edge of the water. Probably in a half inch of water. One of those crazy brooders as big as a salmon swam right up thrashing on the bank and picked up that cheerio. You should have heard my daughter laugh. She thought that was funniest thing. Scared me. The rest of her snack ended up in the pond as her entertainment. :shocked: