3-29-2020 Pontiac Fishing Report

[Quillback]

I have an uncle who is an avid fisherman, he has 2 sons, my cousins, who absolutely will not go fishing.  My uncle would force them to go fishing with him when they were kids, and it just ruined them for fishing.  

[Fish24/7]

My Father has zero patience with me,I don't have siblings, so you can imagine how hard it was for me to learn how to bass fish in the beginning. He has plenty of patience for fishing obviously. I was hooked from the first time I went to Bennett Springs and caught my first trout when I was 3 or 4. Still have the Polaroid pic! 

Anyway Dad fished a lot  of tournaments, still does a few at 74. When I was about 5 or 6 he told me" this is an Abu Garcia 5500, if you want to catch bass and fish tournaments like me,you better learn how to use it"  . Up until then I used small Zebcos. He would set the spool tension ,drag , and say "now don't mess with it!" Hand it to me with a Lunker Lure tied on it, and I would learn by watching him cast his. How to time when to engage the reel a split second before the  lure hit the water. How to get the bait to plane on top instantly so it didn't sink into cover and get snagged immediately. Before long I  was tying my own knots, side arm roll casting under over hanging  limbs, and could tune the bait to run parallel to log jams. That was the only bait he let me use until I got it figured out. Then one day he tossed me a spinnerbait.Same learning process again. One lure at a time. All we used then was pistol grip Fenwicks so the whole combo felt heavy and huge in my kid hands. In the beginning stages every backlash  I had was followed by a few curse words from him about  not thumbing the spool properly he'd say " I'm only puting line on here one more time so you'd better not get another birds nest or your not gonna use my stuff anymore and I'm just going to leave you at home next time I go!" 😄 So you bet every cast from then on was made with total concentration haha.

So with all the cursing and whatnot I had it mastered within a short time. I knew how to use any bait in his box after a few months,and was on my way to fishing tournaments by age 8or 9. We won't mention the first  times I tried to park the old gold Terry Eagle on the trailer at the end of the derby day  when I was about 9 😆. Had to sit on a cushion and a life jacket just to see over the  huge paper graph mounted  on the dash. To a kid it was like driving a semi! Like I said the man has zero patience. But you learn quickly when someone is yelling at you when you're doing it wrong.

Now Grandpa on the other hand was an entirely different fisherman.  He always told my Dad, "you're too hard on that boy" when the 3 of us went camping. Dad would be all seriousness bass fishing like every day was derby day. Grandpa had  14'Jon boat and a canoe, fly rod combos, Mitchell  spinning reel combos, and it was all about catfish and panfish with Earl. Straw hat, chewing tobacco,Folgers can full of worms,, bobbers,split shots, and gold Eagle Claw hooks. He tied up the boat under a shade tree or to a root wad on our local river, or tight line fished from the bank.  No seriousness to his methods, no competition between us. If I screwed up he never mentioned it.  He showed me how to set trot lines,limb lines. While Dad was the jug fisherman when it came to cats,and he still puts out noodles every Fall. Earl passed when I was 17, but while he was around he showed me there's more to fishing than just being serious and competitive. That you need to stop and look around once in a while, pay attention to nature and appreciate what the Creator has given us. Dad was never in a million years going to show his "soft side"😄 but he has one. 

Being exposed to both the competitive and relaxed side of fishing was a blessing.  Dad has his way of teaching me, it probably wasn't  the nicest or calmest  way, but it worked. We won a bunch of tournaments together and eventually  I got my own  bass boat  and fished  derbies by myself and with others with a room full of plaques and trophies to show for it. Dad knows his stuff for sure when it comes to bass fishing.

When we moved to Bull Shoals in 1999 we both had to learn how to finesse fish together, that was an adventure all  by itself,lol. We had fished Bull for years but always the Theodosia arm or Spring Creek. Never in Arkansas. I think we both had to buy spinning gear and learn how to catch small mouth. Grubs??Gitzits? What's that?? 

I don't fish competitively anymore, just got burned out on it after doing it for 20+ years. 

So yeah more about kids, I have had opportunities to teach in 4H fishing years ago when in college. It was a lot of fun!

 

[mixermarkb]

Sam (age 5) loves to fish, and will stick at it pretty darn hard, for a 5 year old. He's good for about 3, maybe 4 hours, especially if there is a fish or two in the well to play with when he's bored. The big problem with Sam is that he wants to fish the exact same bait as I am, or he wants to fish everything under a bobber like we do at Busch Wildlife for gills. He better be getting bites, or he's mad that I'm doing it wrong...lol 

Sid (13) has been fishing with me since he was about 4, which is when I met his mom. I really burned him out on it, didn't have enough patience with him, and he didn't care for it for several years.

He's coming back around now, since a middle school field trip to Busch Wildlife last year. Apparently, he knew more about fishing than he thought he did, and a bunch of the girls were impressed that he could tie their hooks on.. LOL

now- I just gotta get him up to speed on a baitcaster, and maybe teach him how to drive the boat and run the troller- 

I think for me, the big key is divide and conquer. I can manage either one of them ok, and still catch some myself, but you get the two of them in the boat together, all bets are off. At that point I call it a win if everyone gets back to the bank with no new holes in them!!!