For my mentee's 7th and most recent birthday, he acquired the tried and true Zebco 220 rod/reel combo, so we've been fishin'.
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| When the focus is there, it's strong. When it's gone, it's gone. |
But with his 7-year-old attention span, we need to catch fish. Any kind or size of fish. We are currently at about a code red with lack of fishing interest - we haven't caught anything in almost four total hours of fishing. This does not compete with Plants vs Zombies.
We attended the annual Bozeman Kids' Fishing Day at the East Gallatin Recreation Area on Saturday. Despite some serious combat fishing with rambunctious youths whipping their worms a various angles into the pond, it was fun. And folks were catching fish - yellow perch, largemouth bass, and the recently stocked 12-inch rainbow trout. Just not us.
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| Worm whippin'. |
"Another one!" could be heard from time to time down the elbow-to-elbow shore, and our frustration level grew. While it was a good opportunity to teach patience, that you cannot win them all, and that fishing isn't always about catching, it also makes fishing seem like a futile waste of time to a young man who hasn't had the experience of a good fishing day.
So hopefully the fishing gods will bless us with something - anything - soon. Lest we cultivate another kid who would rather sit in front of a glowing rectangle than a river.
I'm sure there's good advice out there - let me know how you keep your kids interesting in fishing. Please.
