Day with My Daughter

[Johnsfolly]

I had to work on my B-day last Sunday, but was able to get down to Bennett Springs on Monday the 9th with my yougnest daughter. We started fishing above upstream of the whistle bridge. We didn't see a lot of fish there and the fishing started slow. My daughter did catch her largest rainbow trout to date on a glo ball in light pink/yellow/white combination. The fish was 14.25" and weighed 1.25lb.

We probably caught 9 fish total before moving upstream where we fished the pool above the rock dam. My daughter wanted to catch her limit, because then I would let her fish for the "bottom dwellers", i.e., banded sculpin. There were a lot more fish above the dam and we fished schools near the bank and off of the handicap pier. Once on the pier, she kept two more trout and with three on the stringer I gave in and let her fish for sculpin. It was on between her and I as to whom could catch the smallest and largest sculpin. I was still pretty focused on trout fishing and caught and released several more fish mostly on 1/32 and 1/64 oz marabou jigs in various colors. I missed an opportunity to hook a 3-4 lb rainbow when it had my jig in its mouth, but spit it out just as I was setting the hook.

My daughter caught the largest sculpin on the same glo ball she caught her big trout.

I caught the smallest, 2.6" on a John Deere microjig. Here is the whopper.

In 2015, I want to catch a bunch of new species and so I bought a number of #18 and #20 flies to be able to go after several minnow species. I put on a #20 olive zebra midge and was fishing for sculpin in the deep pool below the rock dam and told my daughter that you can catch big trout with this tiny lure. As if on cue, I caught a 12" rainbow on the midge.

By the end of the day, my daughter did catch a total of 7 trout and we kept four of her fish that were all over 12" and nine sculpin. I ended up with 23 trout and four sculpin. A pretty good day.

[Plastic_worm]

No question, days spent with your kids on the water, are the best. Very cool!

[Greenheadrocker]

Priceless

[rcguy]

Excellent! A time she won't forget.

[Johnsfolly]

I hope that she continues to like fishing. My two other kids just don't like it as much and we don't get out as much as I would like.