Another one hooked for life!

[Lard Almighty]

So, I rolled up to a local pond after work, hoping to get the weekend started off with some largemouths. No sooner did I walk up to the edge of the pond when a young boy asked if he could watch me fish. I was hoping to film an episode for my Youtube channel, but sparing a few moments seemed like the right thing to do, so I said, “Sure!”

The boy, Luan, watched for a while, told me how he has never been fishing before, “but we are going to,” asked about five times if I had caught one, and gave me casting advice. (“Throw it like a sword!”) I felt like I knew where this was leading, so I tied on a lure that was a little easier to fish. Sure enough, a few cast later Luan asked, “Can I try?”

I won’t lie, I felt a little nervous handing over my $300 baitcasting setup to a kid who has never fished before. I turned the spool tension way up to prevent backlashing as much as possible, and handed it to him. The first two casts I had to walk him through it, but after that he was casting with nary an instruction from me. He was getting some pretty good casting distance, too. After several casts (and only a small amount of goofing around to entertain himself), he, of his own decision, decides he wants to stop the bait so a fish can find it. I enthusiastically told him what a good idea it was.

I saw a few bubbles come up where his lure was.

No way…

His line starts to move off.

NO WAY!

The line comes tight, and I yell, “You got one! You got one! Reel him in!”

Of course, Mom hears the commotion and comes running over just in time to see her son reel an 8” largemouth all the way to the rod tip. I unhooked the fish and held it in front of Luan, who was smiling wide. I asked if he wanted to hold it, but he declined. I understood (fish are pretty slimy, after all). So, I held Luan’s first fish for him while he posed for some pictures, no doubt destined for social media. Then Luan gave me the okay to let the fish go. It swam off nice and strong. Who knows? Maybe someday that bass will be someone else's first fish.

I let him fish a little while longer before Mom said it was time to leave. She let him have one last cast. Then one more. Then ONE more. Luan’s already got the hang of this fishing thing, if you ask me.

After Luan left, so did I. No matter how many fish I would have caught, there’s no way it would have topped what had just happened.

In case you’re wondering, Luan’s first fish came on a 4” Keitech Easy Shiner in chartreuse shad, on a 1/16 oz. jighead, with a stop-and-go retrieve.

Another one, hooked for life!