Bravery, Thy Name is Natalie

Saturday we had Sebastian and his dad Rafael on the boat. Sebastian just turned 9, and for his birthday, he wanted to catch a bass. So we went fishing. And he caught a spotted bass. And then a hybrid striped bass. And then another and another. We put 30 or more fish in the boat before the weekend boat traffic got too crazy. For someone with limited fishing experience, Sebastian was a fish catching machine. He got the rods out of the holders with fish pulling drag, reeled in the fish even while they were dragging him all over the boat, scooped bait out of the tank, and even netted a fish he let his dad catch. There is nothing like watching a youngster have that much fun catching fish. But best of all, first thing he said as he stepped off the boat: "When can we go again?"

Every now and then, you have one of those days where you bounce baits right on the fishes' heads all day long, and they just won't bite. But even then, sometimes the fish story has a happy ending. This is one of them... Meet my little buddy Liam. He came fishing today with his grandfather and Carson, his older cousin. Carson put an eater cat in the boat right off the bat and it looked like we might have a good day. And then we fished. And fished. And fished. Not even a bite. Liam never gave up. He helped reel in rods when we moved, took off bait and kept an eye on the planers, hour after hour. He never complained, but as the day went on, it was clear he was getting discouraged. About 1 pm, we called an audible and set up to make one last drift across a mussel bed. I asked Liam what we should put on the hook as we baited the final rods. He suggested the piece of cut bait I had in my hand and then ALSO adding a cut gizzard shad head on the same hook. We called it the "Liam Special" bait . And we pitched it out and drug it for a half hour. No joy. We finally called it a disappointing day. The rod with the Liam Special bait was the last to come in, and as his grandfather David started to reel it it, he said "I think there's a fish on here!" Liam was off like a shot to grab the rod and started cranking it in like a pro, big grin on his face. He was beside himself when the fish hit the net and came over the side of the boat. Sometimes it's not always about putting 20 fish in the boat. On this day, a single blue cat in the low teens at the last possible moment made all the difference to a fisherkid who was small enough he had to have help to hoist it up for a picture. And now I have a new bait and a great story about Liam, the kid who refused to give up on fishing, even on an insanely slow day..

There, I said it. ;) Had the pleasure of taking out Austin and his dad Ron today. They've been dabbling at getting back into fishing, mostly for bass, but wanted to try catfishing. First hookup was a 19 pound bruiser and it kept going until we got run off the lake by a late morning thunderstorm. Close to 10 nice sized cats, and we lost a monster right at the boat which was a real bummer! Can't wait to take them out again as the fishing gets even better over the next few weeks.