Fishing Firsts!

Yes, it's been awhile since I have had a few spare moments to get on and blog about our goings on - I've missed it!

Things are busy for us this time of year - winding down some of our homeschool, doing our April and June beef processings and deliveries, May pork processings and deliveries and making plans for summer activities.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we took the girls fishing for the first time. We started out early on Friday morning at Herb Parson's Lake, about 30 minutes or so from us. We made our required stop by the "bait shop" to check in, get our fishing licenses and learn the regulations for what we could keep and what had to be released back into the lake.

We'd scoped out this lake a bit just a couple of weekends before when my oldest daughter had a 3-D archery shoot there (which was a BLAST and a topic for another post). So we had high hopes of getting enough fish for a tidy little fish fry. The lake is 177 acres with lots of little nooks - mostly through wooded areas.

Well, as luck would have it, all the boaters in the area must have thought it was a great day for boating, because we couldn't seem to find a location where a boat wasn't trolling by every 3-5 minutes or so. Finally, after a couple of hours, we decided to call it a day at this lake.

We headed out to check on our cows and bees and while we were there had a flash of brilliance by remembering that our dear family friend and midwife has a huge lake on her property, which was only about 15 minutes from our pasture. So we gave her a quick ring and she was more than happy to let us come by to fish in her lake.

After tending cows, we headed off for a quick bit of lunch and arrived at her lake around 2:30ish that afternoon.

Even though the fish weren't really biting that time of day - the girls had a great time learning the ins and outs of casting - this time without having to worry about trees all around them, as our midwife's lake is out in a huge pasture. They did have to learn how to keep from getting tangled in the shoreline grasses and limbs. Seems that hubby spent the entire day replacing snapped lines and lost fishhooks during this learning process!

We finished off the day around 5 and headed home empty-handed, but with an invitation to go back on Saturday for another round. We went out on Saturday morning and got there about 8:30 that morning. Hubby had prepped all the fishing equipment and we were ready to go the minute we arrived.

My middle daughter, who turned 7 on Monday, was the first to catch a fish on Saturday. It was a big one and for several moments I wasn't sure if it was going to pull her into the lake or if she was going to get it to shore! She landed a 17" catfish and was beaming with joy.



I was helping my youngest, age 3, and we almost immediately caught another catfish using her little fishing pole, which I thought was going to break before we could get the fish reeled in. Just as hubby was reaching down to pull it out of the water, it managed to break off the hook and get away. Disappointment for all.

Not to be outdone, my oldest daughter is now very determined to catch something. But I had the next round of luck, catching a 16" large mouth bass. Hubby finally got a chance to try for a bite - he'd just finished resetting my oldest daughter's line - threw it in to show her how to cast farther, and darn if he didn't get a bite on the first throw! He pulled in a 17" large mouth bass.



Now my oldest is really irritated - she's sure that her Dad has just caught the big fish that's eluded her twice that morning already. But, with some perseverance, she managed to catch a 15" large mouth bass before we took a break for lunch.



We made several more attempts after a quick lunch break and had four that managed to get away from us that afternoon. We headed home around 3 to get our fish prepped and ready for dinner. In all, the girls had a great time and so did we - and we had a tasty little fish dinner as well! Aside from a few allergy issues with my oldest and my hubby from the pasture grasses, they are all definitely up for more fishing this year!



We're hoping to squeeze in a bit more fishing time this weekend after our pork deliveries if the weather cooperates, so stay tuned!