Noah's first fish

Last week Noah said he wanted to go fishing. His buddy Hayden got a fishing pole at his birthday party and a recent episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse had Mickey testing his angling skills. I guess it was on his mind because he announced it at bedtime when I asked him what he wanted to do for Father-Son day. In the summer, I take off 1 day a week and Noah and I have a boys' day out. We've golfed and we've bowled, and we've played video games until our fingers bled but I have never brought up fishing. Visions of him hooking me and yanking the pole have left it off my "suggestion list."

But on this day he declared he wanted to go fishing. I gave him the whole lecture of "You have to be a good listener to go fishing" and then put him to bed. Then it was off to the internet to buy a license and off to Wal-Mart to buy him a pole and some tackle. I only own bass and trout gear and there is no way I was doing either of those with him. I got nostalgic as I bought him his first Zebco. I still remember what mine looked like. Hooks, sinkers, bobbers, and a Spider-Man tackle box filled the cart and I went home with visions of lunkers in my head.

The next morning we were off to Southtown for crickets and Lake Fayetteville for fun. He was a really good listener and he held the pole by himself but he wasn't the most adamant 'watcher' of his bobber. After a few got away, I had him sit in my lap and we held the pole together. After about 45 minutes we hooked one. He reeled it in himself so I didn't think we'd land it for the amount of time it took but eventually we got him to shore. It was a decent size bream that would've made Cloise Rotton proud. I snapped the picture and asked if he wanted to take it home to eat. He said "No I take him home and put him in the bathtub." I actually thought about honoring this wish just to see the look on Jenna's face but we finally let it go back to its home.