I now know why my father did his best to keep us from fishing the tanks at the sportsman's shows that rolled into town in the spring, but ultimately never succeeded.
It smells horrible. The kiddie pools are filled to the brim with some of the saddest fish on the planet. Think about it, raised in a hatchery then put in a bathtub to be caught. Not the world's best existence right?
But when Big C saw those fish swimming around and with his emotional mixture of curiosity, excitement and a bit of nervousness, I knew we'd be all over it.
$3 bucks per fish, a rod with a fixed line, bobber weight and a crappie jig. To really speed up the process the volunteers had cans of corn, which to these fish are the equivalent to magnets
In the pool the offering goes and C's hands clutched the rod with all his strength, which is considerable considering he's 2 1/2 but the size of your average 4 year old. Bobber down and fish comes tail-walking with our assistance over the rail, splashing C in the process
So terrified yet so excited. We repeated this process 3 other times till we had a nice mess of hatch dogs.
He wanted to carry his bag of fish, and "no dadda/momma, I carry it" was all we heard as we left the ponds....oh wait....indoor lakes....oh hell, they're kiddy pools of fish
But to C, it was pretty darn fun.
I guess I owe my father a big thank you for letting me do the same when I was young.
Not quite the same as busing around in Location X Creek like we did today, but he will be there before you know it.
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