Teach a man to fish...

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we were able to take Isaac out fishing for the first time.  He was so excited!  In the van on the ride up, all he said he wanted to do when he got to the cabin was go fishing.  Many nights prior to this, I overheard Adam and Isaac have "Is this a keeper?" discussions before bed.  (Isaac would hold his hands out at certain distances and ask, "Is this a keeper?".  They both would giggle and had so much fun discussing.)

We didn't immediately exit the car and run down to a boat to fish but held off until Saturday around midday.  Jeff recommended a good spot for catching Sunnies so we packed up the gear and headed out.

I spent probably the first 15 minutes praying to God in my head for Isaac to catch just one fish. God heard me and answered in abundance! Larry and I caught 3 "keeper" sunnies. And, all four of us caught a variety of sunnies and crappies of smaller sizes.

My favorite catch was the tiny crappy Isaac "caught" (think Adam holding Isaac's pole and reeling it in while Isaac jumps around in the boat). After we brought it in, he said, "Put it in the live well with it's friends, Grandpa." Who could say no to that sweet request? And, that is how we ended up with a couple of fish we needed to release upon bringing the boat back to the dock. I didn't want to deny those fish friends a last few minutes of fun together! :)

I was amazed at Isaac's complete lack of fear when it came to the fish. It took me a good four years before I was willing to reach my hand into a minnow bucket, pull one out, and put it on a hook. It took Isaac a good four seconds to decide to reach in and pull out a minnow to hand to us. He also got very good at pulling out the dead minnows and throwing them overboard.

 And, when it came to throwing fish overboard, Isaac was quite funny with that too.  We had one perch that we told him we weren't keeping.  We put it down in the boat for Isaac to be able to pick up and release back into the water.  Apparently he wasn't watching as we would gently release the fish down in the water next to the boat.  He did his best wind up and chucked that fish a good distance from the boat back into the water!  He's got a good arm on him!  :)