I had one of the best charters in a long time last night, a really nice father who wanted both of his really nice kids to catch some fish. You never know when kids are involved. I’ve had some who were a pleasure to have on board, and some who made you want to pull your hair out after 20 minutes. The two I had the honor of guiding last night were certainly the former. It was a little crowded on board, so after the typical flattened ear stare down, Drake stayed home and watched TV. He likes the chicks on Fox News, so he didn’t have it too bad.

We set out for largemouth using plastic worms and circle hooks (again), and when I explained the conservation virtues of the circle hook to them they took to it immediately, having used them before. The father wanted me to focus on his kids catching fish, and so that’s what I did.

I pushed the boat along the drop off with short bursts of the trolling motor, in 20 feet of water, and had them cast toward shore, perpendicluar to the boat. This way, the cast landed in 5 or so feet of water, and with an in line swivel only as weight, was perfect when reeled slow, as it slid the worm slowly right down the face of the drop off. I explained our strategy to the kids, and I’ll be darned if they didn’t understand it immediately.

They got bites right away, and it wasn’t long before the first largemouth came to the boat. It was about 12-14″, but it didn’t matter, as the rod and line was matched for just that kind of fish. We were using the 9′ steelhead rods with 6# line. Not only did that fish fully bend the rod and take some drag, but contrary to popular belief, kids can cast longer rods much farther, set hooks better, and control fish better than the conventional “short rod for kids” mentality would have you believe. It just plain isn’t true, and I’ve proven it over 4 years of guiding kids - they fish better with longer, more flexible rods.

Each of them caught 5 or 6 bass that evening, with a couple of giant rock bass too. One bass the younger son had caught was in the 17″ range. I told him to hold his arm straight down, laid the tip of the bass’s tail at his fingertips, and the jaw tip was dang near his armpit! He put his other finger on that spot, and after releasing the fish, I looked up to see his finger still marking the spot near his armpit. “You don’t have to leave it there the rest of the trip”, his dad said. “We’ll remember”. We all had a great laugh over that one.

We moved to a sunken island where we usually anchor in the middle and cast in a 360 degree pattern as the bass constantly move through us feeding, and there is no need for us to keep moving. As we set up, I saw a small splash on the edge of the island in about 15 feet of water. Then another, and yet another. Change of plans.

The father brought his flyrod, and was so patient making sure his kids caught fish, that I was happy when I offered to rig up his rod, move over to the fish, and “give dad a shot” at some flyrod action, and he agreed. He caught a bunch of bluegills on the fly, and had a ball. I switched the spinning rods over to fly and bobber, and the kids caught several bluegills, too.

Darkening skies and lightning flashes in the northwest told us to use our better judgement and pack up, as it was time anyway. Another day on the water with some pretty special people.

I dropped off the folks, headed back out the skinny canal, and noticed the sky had gotten alot darker, and the lightning was flashing brighter. No sound yet, but rather than idle home watching the spectacle, I knew Drake wasn’t a happy guy, as he hates lightning.

As I got out into the lake, I stood the boat on its end, planed off and ran for home. Every time I drop off clients and head for home I feel I have alot to be thankful for.

“Alright, it’ s six o’clock, time for a beer”, my buddy said.  We’d been out on the water since four, caught a few largemouth and some really nice bluegills.  My friend let Drake lick them all after my stern caution about bad karma if we bypassed him.  Thus good fishing continued. 

I threw the anchor out, reached into the cooler, took out a couple ice cold ones, took two ice cold pint glasses with the Golden Drake logo etched into them out of their ziplock bags, and immediately they frosted over.  “Might as well be civilized about this”, I said,  pouring two glasses full.  What an amazing sight to a guy with a parched throat.

We sat on the comortable seats on the Golden Drake “flats” boat, drinking great cold brew, and Drake laid down under our legs for a nap.  We had been using our typical plastic worms and tubes with circle hooks, 9′ light action rods with six pound test - you know the rigs the experts say “won’t work”.  The sun was high, so the fish were here and there,  and deep,  and I was anticipating the evening change of the sun angle and a migration of hungry fish from the deep edge of the drop off up on to the flats to feed.  It was easy to sit there sipping a great beer and talking to a good friend about fishing, business, and life.  This is of equal importance and equally rewarding as fishing itself.

My friend, business associate, and guest of Drake and I for the evening was Bruce Clevenger, our sales rep for Heritage and Native kayaks and a host of wonderful accessories, plus Bruce is the top notch Kayak instructor.  He owns Quietworld Sports in Jackson, Michigan, www.quietworldsports.com .  That’s not a shameless plug, I am confident telling the watersports world about Bruce and his organization.  If you’re into watersports, you’d simply be better off knowing him.

We finished our beers (for that moment in time), and resumed fishing, which had improved, as the sun was lowering in the horizon.  As far as numbers and sizes, I’d guess we were at about 10 largemouth bass, most of which were in the 14″ range.  The bluegills were in the 8″ range, caught on small ultralights and twister tails, or hand tied jigs.  Bruce caught one “pig” largemouth about 16″, but super fat, and a couple of blugills in the 9″ range we simply call “bulls”.  This was good fishin’.

“I brought some stuff to eat”, Bruce said, and proceeded to lay out one of the coolest spreads of boat chow I had seen in a while.  “You can bartend”, he said.  Fair enough.  Cheddar cheese, fresh salami, hummus, guacamole, crackers, carrots… and ice cold top-notch brew in a chilled glass.  Yea.

After solving some more of the world’s problems over dinner, we went back at it.  The sun was just above the trees, and now it was time to get up on the flats.  The fish were there, and hungry.  We caught fish after fish…right time, right place, right stuff.  The circle hooks did their job.  A total of over 30 largemouth, 10 rock bass, and time after time, every single fish was hooked harmlessly in the corner of the mouth.  “I’m sold”, Bruce said.  “Those hooks are amazing”. 

We dropped Bruce off about dark, navigated through the narrow canal and out onto the lake.  I flipped the running lights on.  Anticipating a run across the lake, Drake did his usual…run to the front, run to the back, sit down right next to (half on top of) Craig.  I put an arm around him and cruised home across the lake.