My 4yr old daughter has caught fish with help in the past, but weekend before last she caught her very first unassisted fish, a nice little bass, with her Dora the Explorer pole and a weedless frog. She caught another one all by herself later on the same day with her pole and a dark blue Berkeley worm.
After that, we got the bass catchin' fever, so yesterday we ran up to Lake Houston just to have a little daddy/daughter time, and hopefully catch more fish. A couple guys coming in said the water was still too muddy and that nothing was biting. We head out anyway just for fun and after a while of trying a few spots for catfish we found a good grassy area. I let my daughter use our last soft plastic frog, free lined and weedless, and I used a watermelon sparkle crawfish on a Carolina rig. Immediately, she gets a bite and retrieves a now one-legged frog. So I cast out where she did and get nothing. Her next cast gets a hit but the fish spit out the now-mangled frog, so I switch her over to a blue worm. I take the weight off my crawfish just in case they aren't on bottom and get nothing for 15 minutes straight, during which my daughter goes up 2-0 on me with her dang Dora pole and that blue worm. Two small largemouth right at keeper size, but we're just throwing them back. I change over to the same kind of worm and get nothing over 10 casts covering 180 degrees through the grass and into open water. She decides it's time for lollipops and asks me to cast her line while she digs into her bag for the candy. Fling the ol' worm out with the Dora pole and Wham! get a bite almost as it hit the water. I go ahead and catch that one, since she's busy opening more tootsie pops than there are fishermen on the lake. We get situated, and I hand her the pole in trade for a cherry tootsie pop. Can you guess what happens? She casts right straight into the dang grass, pulls it free, and gets a hit on the retrieve back in for another cast. She's now up on ol' dad 3-1,and I didn't even catch my 1 on my own pole.
That dang Dora the Explorer pole has some serious juju. I told my daughter she is ready for a real fishing pole, but to be totally honest I just want an excuse to use the Dora pole myself. So, if you are out fishing and see a grown man in a little red boat fishing with a 2ft long purple girl's Dora the Explorer pole, back off cuz I am in the ZONE!
After that, we got the bass catchin' fever, so yesterday we ran up to Lake Houston just to have a little daddy/daughter time, and hopefully catch more fish. A couple guys coming in said the water was still too muddy and that nothing was biting. We head out anyway just for fun and after a while of trying a few spots for catfish we found a good grassy area. I let my daughter use our last soft plastic frog, free lined and weedless, and I used a watermelon sparkle crawfish on a Carolina rig. Immediately, she gets a bite and retrieves a now one-legged frog. So I cast out where she did and get nothing. Her next cast gets a hit but the fish spit out the now-mangled frog, so I switch her over to a blue worm. I take the weight off my crawfish just in case they aren't on bottom and get nothing for 15 minutes straight, during which my daughter goes up 2-0 on me with her dang Dora pole and that blue worm. Two small largemouth right at keeper size, but we're just throwing them back. I change over to the same kind of worm and get nothing over 10 casts covering 180 degrees through the grass and into open water. She decides it's time for lollipops and asks me to cast her line while she digs into her bag for the candy. Fling the ol' worm out with the Dora pole and Wham! get a bite almost as it hit the water. I go ahead and catch that one, since she's busy opening more tootsie pops than there are fishermen on the lake. We get situated, and I hand her the pole in trade for a cherry tootsie pop. Can you guess what happens? She casts right straight into the dang grass, pulls it free, and gets a hit on the retrieve back in for another cast. She's now up on ol' dad 3-1,and I didn't even catch my 1 on my own pole.
That dang Dora the Explorer pole has some serious juju. I told my daughter she is ready for a real fishing pole, but to be totally honest I just want an excuse to use the Dora pole myself. So, if you are out fishing and see a grown man in a little red boat fishing with a 2ft long purple girl's Dora the Explorer pole, back off cuz I am in the ZONE!
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