Oh how sweet it is!

Well I did it. I caught a fish on a fly that I made myself. It really is a neat feeling to accomplish that. I finally made it out to my grandma's house on an absolutely perfect day. It was about 75 degrees with only a slight breeze. The sun was out in full force but it doesn't seem to spook large mouth like it does brown or rainbow trout. I even took my shirt off to get a nice little sun burn. Andrew was with me today and he was a little impatient but it worked out in his favor. On my first cast with my favorite homemade clauser minnow, I landed a nice little bass.

I chose to go with a minnow with green, yellow, and white buck tail with red flash. It was a size 6 hook with yellow eyes. I cast it along the dock and pulled it in rather slowly and evenly. I figured the fish would still be a little slow because the time of year. I got the strike right off the bank. It put up a bigger fight than I expected which is always a good thing, but I had no problem pulling him in. I was using a 4 weight tippet so I was a little concerned.

It was a great feeling. I then cast about 25 feet down the bank a few times and caught another. Andrew liked this one because it was "widdle" like him. He even helped me throw him back.

We walked around the pond a little bit, scaring off a couple of Canadian Geese until we got to the two pine trees that grow just feet from the water, a pretty consistently good spot. One good cast 15 feet down and 6 feet from shore and I got another strike right on the bottom. It hit hard and as it rose I saw it was a bigger fish than the other two. I took my time with it just because I had a light line on and was in no rush. Like I expected, the fight didn't last too long (the water is still very cold) I bent down and grabbed him by the jaw to bring him up. He was the biggest fish I've caught in a while out of the pond. Great fish, great fly, FANTASTIC day.

After this nice fish, Andrew was bored so we took a walk in the woods. He was thrilled. He even found a walking stick. As we walked past the dump in the back I pulled out my old plastic spring horse and big wheeler. Neither is in working shape but Andy sat on the horse while I held it and he did the same on the big wheeler. Those toys are 20 plus years old. Time flies. I pointed out the old swing set and walked him down to our old fort. It is fallen over and dilapidated but he could tell it was something out of the ordinary. It was then I started to wonder why Grandpa dumped so much stuff in the ditch in the woods instead of taking it to the curb. Andrew had fun and I had a blast with him. He may even want to do it again.