Great Day to be a Dad

Fishing Time:  3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Weather:  Partly Cloudy, windy, T-90s

Moon Phase:  30% Moon

Location:  Utah Lake (Dad's secret spot)

Best Bait:  Worm under a bobber

Who Went:  Devin, Dunc

Its official… my son Devin is addicted to fishing.  It’s all he thinks about.  The minute I walk in the door from work he says “dad can we go to the lake?  What kind of fish should we try to catch today?”  Needless to say, it’s a fun problem to have when you compare it with playing ipads and video games all day.  There’s two species of fish he’s especially interested in catching.  The first one is a white fish with black stripes (wiper, white bass, or striper), and a catfish with a big black head (spawning male channel catfish).

 

After a somewhat failed attempt to fish with all three of my kids on my boat last week, I knew I needed to get Devin into some fish before he lost interest in fishing altogether.  I took him down to Utah Lake to one of my secret spots that usually produce numbers for channel catfish.  After arriving I began to think I failed again.  A few nibbles from suspected mud cats were all we got the first half hour.  We tried a couple different spots and finally had a double hook up on both rods producing a nice bluegill and a mud cat.  

A few minutes later this crappie took the bait.  

This didn’t hold his attention long though and soon he was off to play in the weeds.  

I started casting around trying to find a willing channel cat, and finally after tossing into a small pocket near the weed line my bobber disappeared into the muddy water.  I set the hook and Devin reeled in the first channel catfish of the day.  

Another worm went on and a cast to the same spot produced another channel catfish within seconds.  This went on for the next half hour.  I would literally cast to the spot, wait 1 to 3 seconds, and the big red and white bobber would disappear. 

On one of my hook sets I could tell it felt a little heavier, so I quickly gave Devin the rod and sent him on the ride of his life!  He would pull back on the rod and line would rip off the reel.  It was an epic battle and Devin finally landed what he had eagerly been waiting for… a big black headed channel catfish in the 5-7 pound range.  It made his day and made my year.

He was so excited and wanted 100 pictures to show mom and the rest of the world what he had caught.  One of my best moments as a dad yet!

It didn’t stop there either and who knows how long they would have kept biting, but unfortunately after about ten channel catfish we were down to one half of a worm.  I casted it out and within seconds it was fish on as usual, except this was much smaller than a catfish, and to my surprise it was a small white bass.  Devin had now landed the two fish he so badly wanted to catch.  Not to mention the light bulb went off in my head and I realized we just caught more bait!  

So, we cut up the white bass and continued the bonanza for another half hour.  No idea how many we caught in total, but it was a bunch and I had one happy six year old on my hands.  He couldn’t wait to go home and show everyone the photos of all the fish he caught.

I hope I didn’t ruin the little dude into thinking this is an every trip event, but I wouldn’t change it.  It was a blast watching him reel in all those fish, and I have a true fisherman on my hands.  Before we left he told me we should probably stay and catch a largemouth bass since that was the only fish in Utah Lake we hadn’t caught yet.  Unbelievable.  I think I smiled all the way home.  Oh and Devin wanted to post some photos of the bait and tackle we used so that others would know how to catch them.  Here are the photos taken by Devin...