I had been itching to take my 2.5 year old son out fishing for his first saltwater fish. The weather was absolutely perfect last Wednesday (10/19). I made the call to leave work early and go out for a bit. Picked up my son from preschool, stopped at Crum's for some live shrimp and we were on the water by 3:00 PM. Given his short attention span, I wanted to make this a short but fun trip.
Plan was to fish a strong incoming tide by power poling on some spots. Figured if I power poled I could better help him and not be occupied with running the trolling motor. We pulled up to spot #1 and the power pole had trouble holding given how strong the tide was coming in. Decided to make a quick move to spot #2. Got him setup floating a live shrimp under a popping cork on his Mickey Mouse rod. He insisted on using this rod even though I had brought him a rod and reel better suited for the job.
While he was floating his shrimp, I somehow managed to get a couple casts in. On my third cast, I hooked up to a decent 19" trout on top water. Got the trout in the boat and now my son was super excited to catch his own. Shortly after landing my fish my son got a strong bite on his cork, and out of the corner of my eye I saw his Mickey rod flying through the air and into the drink. You can imagine the look on a 2 year old's face and the crying that ensued when he realized his favorite rod is gone. I suspect it may have been a red given the bite.
Some how he took it like a trooper and was able to regroup and try again. This time I took no chances held onto the rod with him. A couple minutes after getting him setup on rod and reel #2, he hooks up to a trout. I helped him by making sure he held the rod up and reeling with him a couple times when he was reeling too slow and thought he might lose the fish. We got it to the boat and was he very happy to say the least. Trout measured out at 20". Not bad for his first. Decided to leave them biting and end on a high note. We were back on the trailer by 5:00 PM with two fish in the cooler. I was very proud to say the least and hopefully he is "hooked".