Fishing with Sophia

[agelesssone]

What a trip it is trying to fish with my 5 year old daughter, Sophia.

Decided to take her through the lock at Old Hickory to catch some skipjacks below the dam plus let her have the experience that took me almost 67 years to have, locking through a dam.

Launched at Rockland launch above the dam, but before we left the dock, called the gate keeper to see how long of a wait we'd have to get through.
He told me the gates were inoperable and had been since 7 AM. Electrical problem, didn't know when they'd be fixed.

Loaded the boat back up, drove around to the river side of the dam and launched there.
Got up to the dam and the skippies were just as active as I'd hoped.
Made a cast and hooked up immediately, gave the (5' ultralight) to Sophia and listened to her squeal. After the fourth fish, fishing had lost it's appeal and it was time to take her shoes and socks off and dangle her feet in the water.
I caught a 10 inch skippie and put it out on a heavy rod and dropped it right off the bottom and continued to catch skippies. After about 30 minutes the big rod started screeching, all bowed up. Sophia tried to get it out of the rod hold but couldn't budge it. I pulled it out, held the rod and let her try to crank it, but the fish was peeling line and she couldn't do anything with it so I took over. Five minutes of back and forth give and take, I had about a 20-25 lb striper headed for the boat. Of course when I got him boatside, he looked me in the eye and made another 30 yd run, pulled him back to the boat and he took off again. This time he made good his escape. Don't know how, but he just came unhooked.

And now Sophia is ready for a boat ride. Boat rides for her means one thing....."faster, Daddy, faster"!

I'll continue this little saga tonight.

G\Right now, I gotta get ready to head for Normandy Lake with my partner William Brown. Gonna try to find some of those slab black nose crappie.

[Alphahawk]

Good read....and good luck with the black nose.

Regards


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[Travis C.]

I gotta get ready to head for Normandy Lake with my partner William Brown. Gonna try to find some of those slab black nose crappie.

Tell Bill, I said hi Merv.

Also, while you are out looking for slabs on Normandy find some of those walleye haunts as well.

Good luck guys!

[tsuggs]

great report and story!

[SAMBOLIE]

Beautiful day, beautiful daughter, and time together on the water. Doesn't get any better, does it Merv?
You have been blessed.

[agelesssone]

Travis, from what I have been told by some of the guys that fish there regularly, the walleye catchin gets good in June and July. Both sides of Devil's Island by Barton Springs campground.

And Alpha, you had a much better day than William and I. 7 hours of non-stop hard fishing and we boated 5 crappies, (two keepers) and two bass and a few bluegills.

Talked to four other fishermen and they were doing worse than us!
So your ten was a vast improvement over our two.

[agelesssone]

(cont).....So we pull up lines and head downriver for Sophia's mandatory boat ride.

There are guys fishing by the steps on the Hendersonville side of the river and Sophia wants to go say hi to them. Get down by them and idle out of casting range and she is waving, saying Hi, and asking if they are catching anything. The fishermen are wanting to know how deep it is where they are casting so I idle in and tell them 14-15 ft deep, chatted a bit more, then turned back downriver where I opened the throttle to a modest 32 MPH.

Sophia is lovin' it! Except I'm not going fast enough! Of course not!

Down river a coupla miles and here comes a houseboat headed toward the dam. Sophia wants to say Hi to the boat people, so I turn the boat around and sidle up to the houseboat while Sophia has a nice chat with the two gentlemen on the houseboat. Coupla minutes and it's time for us to head out.

I have Sophia sitting on the bait tank next to me so I can hold her by her lifejacket and I open it up to about 44 mph which tickles the crap out of Sophia.

We run on up to the ramp and I tie the boat off to a tree and get ready to fetch the trailer. Sophia wants to walk in the water but I tell her she might cut her feet on glass on the riverbank. So she says "How about if I leave my shoes on"? And I'm like, What the hell, tennis shoes will dry out, so I tell her she can wade (it's very shallow there and she is still wearing her lifejacket). So I tell her if ANYONE comes to the riverbank, start yelling "DADDY"! as loud as she can and I'll come back (and most people know I'm always armed and an excellent (and unhesitating) shot) and get her.
So, back the trailer down the ramp, push the boat out into the water and pull it up on the trailer (via a long rope). Tug the boat up as far as I can get it to go but it stops one foot short of me being able to reach the clevis.

What to do? By now Sophia is already up to her crotch (so much for the shoes) in the water, climbing on the big rocks, climbing down and wading around so I figured I'd put her to good use. Had her come over and hook up the winch strap to the clevis on the boat and I winched it right on up.

Got her in the truck, pulled the boat out to the top of the hill, turned the heat on full blast, stripped her down, dried her off with a towel, and put dry clothes on her for the twenty minute ride home.

Dropped the boat off at the house then drove over to Walkers Bait shop, dropped off the dozen or so skipjacks I had caught, then headed.........back to the riverbank.

Seems she had said she wanted to go talk to the guys on the riverbank again, while we were on the boat, and I had absentlymindly replied OK.
Well, she reminded me and we were driving right past Rockland park anyway, so I drove to the steps, parked, grabbed a rod, small tacklebox and took off..... about one minute behind Sophia.

When I got down to the water she was deep in conversation with the two guys we had talked to from the boat, asking them if they had caught anything, how big were they, how many, what kind, etc.

We only stayed 20 minutes or so as it was getting dark and dinner would be ready very soon.

Dinner was ready when we got home, so we dived right in, ate, and got her ready for bed. My wife said she could barely stay awake long enough to brush her teeth and then passed out almost as soon as she hit the pillow.

So, in reality, we had a great daddy/daughter day, one we hadn't had for awhile. But.....I'm already looking forward to the next one!

[spottedbass]

If there was only a "Like" button. :)

[Transplanted Sportsman]

That is the stuff of life right there Merv! Heck I cant believe I agree with Sambolie but I do on this!

[TNtroller]

Cant think of a better way to spend the day. Congrats to both of you. :)

[Dakota]

That's good stuff! Thanks for sharing.

[Fishaholic]

Merv,
You need to do that as often as possible, Salty will attest to the bond Abigail and I have because of our fishing together. The biggest thing that kills me right now about not having a boat is having to tell her no when she wants to go fishing which is as often as I do.:D

[Reel Tune]

Great read, you are an awesome father.