Fishing with youngsters is exciting!

Our friends from LaCrosse Wisconsin have spent the past week on the island. They are now the third and fourth generation of the Edwards clan to occupy that cabin that looks south to American narrows. The cabin has changed much in the last decade as the younger members of the Edwards clan moved to expand the original with a large screened in porch.
Their mother Jane had brought electricity to the cabin when Ontario Hydro had agreed to hook up a group of Canadian cabin owners. The electricity eliminated gas light fixtures, and a gas refrigerator. Last year hot water streamed into the cottage for the first time and this year the wood airtight heater was removed and electric heat was installed.
Tim and Tara Pedesky have been responsible for bringing those nice conveniences to the cabin.
The cabin remains rustic but the families using the cabin would have it no other way.
Earlier in the week, I invited Tim Pedesky and his two children Laina and Nicholas to go fishing if the weather would cooperate. And it did on Saturday.
With a quick trip to a Canadian License issuer, we were on our way fishing. I had chosen a fishing hole way up in Rice Bay that will always produce some fish.
Tim, whose furthest travel into Canada by boat has been to the cabin on Turtle Island sat back and enjoyed the trip up under the bridges of Windy Point and then the trips up through the two narrow waterways that lead to the top end of Rice Bay.
Laina had brought along her tackle box and fishing reel. It had been a special present and she was going to use it. I supplied the tackle, rods and reels for Tim and Nicholas.
We arrived at our spot and set up to fish. I didn’t even have the trolling motor in the water before Tim had latched on to a big Northern. The fish came to the boat three times before it finally got the fishing line square in its teeth and freed itself. It was a good omen.
We drifted with the wind on the edge of a reef in ten feet of water. Casting toward the rocks, with a purple designer colour Mepps lure, Laina latched onto a big bass. Her first instinct was that she was on bottom, because she couldn’t reel. As she announced her predicament, the bass launched itself into the air.
I think that scared her. With her father’s help, Laina slowly started bringing the fish to the boat. She was more worried about losing her lure than catching the fish and showed lots of anxiety about the fish. Between feeling excited and worried about the fish pulling the rod out of her hands, she finally gave way to letting her father bring the fish to the boat.
And what a beauty. In any bass tournament it would be a money fish weighing almost four pounds. We lifted it out of the net and took her picture. She wouldn’t handle it.
Her brother caught a small bass that fought as hard as its big mother. Nicholas was much more brave. Holding the bass with his thumb and finger he reached over the side of the boat and gently released it back into the water. The smile of accomplishment on his face said everything.
It has been a while since I have had youngsters fishing and the excitement of catching a fish was contagious. Pictures were taken, and the big fish was given a ride back to the cabin for her mother to see. It was fun.
And with its release back into the water, the stories of catching fish for the rest of the day grew. It’s what fishing with kids is all about.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher