With Fathers Day approaching, seems like a good time to flashback to one of my favorite pond memories.
A few years back, my two sons and daughter were all home for the weekend and decided to make Saturday "Take Dad Fishing Day". Mom cooked us all a hearty breakfast, then we were on our way to one of the local ponds in Baton Rouge.
This particular pond is managed by LDWF as catch-and-release for bass and bream, and there are good size fish of both species.
The boys - Cosmos and Tiger Jake - decided that a little competition would be fun. Cokie accepted the challenge although she hadn't been fishing in several months and her fly casting was a bit rusty.
I decided to tag with her, figuring she might need my help.
On her third cast, Cokie laid a yellow and black Accardo Spook between two clumps of matted algae. Up from the depths came a big bass, swimming non-chalantly. It stopped just inches from her popper and stared it down.
She lifted the tip of her rod so slowly, as to only nudge the popper, and make it's legs flutter without the body pushing water. That must've triggered an instinct, because then Ol' Bucketmouth rose a couple inches to the surface and slurped it up! Then swam to whence he came.
Now I would've set the hook the instant the bass inhaled it. But Cokie waited just a second longer, until it turned back down. Then she set the hook. Later I realized that action probably kept her from losing that baskeen.
Needless to say, it was a spectacular fight and the fish jumped at least three times! I kept giving advise, but I think it was largely ignored. She knew what she was doing... as if she'd been doing it forever.
As the morning went on, the bigger the deficit grew between her and her brothers. I began to realize that, while she hadn't mastered casting or knots like her brothers, she'd mastered something more important - the art of observation. She had taken notice of the insect behavior on the pond, the things I was doing to catch fish, and imitated those actions.
Even when it comes to fishing - being a successful Dad is leading by example.
