Kids are off Sunday school until next year, so I'm now on daddy duty every Sunday. After the success we had trolling for pike a couple weeks ago, coupled with the forecast of no wind, I decided to take my 3 younger boys to teach them how troll.
Although we were 4 people, I only took 2 rods, as I wanted to ensure that things stay under control. Idea was to have 2 of the 3 hold a rod while trolling, then switch off every time a fish was caught.
We got out to our spot a bit before noon. First pass, Avi hooks up a small pike on a wally diver, about 2.5 lbs. We toss it back in, my 5 year old Eli takes his place. Within 2 minutes, he's got one on. Not quite sure what to do, he tries to winch it in with the reel, but isn't big enough or strong enough to do so. I show him how to use the rod to fight the fish, then use the reel to pick up slack line. As he brings the pike up near the boat, it dives straight down a couple times, bending the rod in half and nearly yanking it out of his hands. I finally net the fish for him, needless to say he's more than thrilled. It's his first pike, a nice 4.5 lb fish at that. Not too bad for a 5 year old.
Fishing slows down over the next couple hours, with a few missed hits, and some extremely aggressive perch attacking our lures as well.
We switch spots and catch a couple big smallmouth bass in the 3 - 3.5 lb range. Season's still closed, so it's back to the pike spot, still no hits. We finally motor down to a completely different area and Eli manages another pike in the 3 lb range.
Little Eli now has now earned bragging rights over his 2 older brothers. Furthermore, he seems to be one to spin his tales well, he's already decided that his pike looked more like a musky...
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