MAYBE THE BEST EVER

All three of my kids enjoy fishing.  While we've had some really good trips over the years, we may have well had our best ever last weekend.  It was our first camping trip of the summer at Marion Reservoir.  The fishing stars must have aligned just right as the action was fast and usually furious.

We arrived Thursday evening and with light fading fast, my two boys and I decided to try casting a jig and bobber from shore to see if any crappie were still nearby.  On Brandon's second cast our question was answered as he landed a nice slab.  In the next 45 minutes we caught and released about 15 crappie and fished until we couldn't see.

The next morning the wind was whipping as I loaded my three kids and wife into the boat.  I rigged each kid's pole with a bottom bouncer and spinner or slow death hook and we started a drift.  Within minutes all kids had caught a fish and it never slowed down.  They were reeling in wipers, white bass and walleye about as fast as they could at times.  I did nothing but bait hooks, remove fish and run the boat for the next several hours.  I never even had time to sit down. 

Since my wife wasn't fishing she decided to keep a tally.  In three hours the kids, each fishing with a single rod, caught 108 fish.  If you divide that evenly that's a fish every 100 seconds.  However, they had numerous doubles and even times when all three were battling a fish.  I could barely keep up and my fingers were cut-up, raw and even bleeding from handling so many fish.  We weren't keeping any fish this day either, although we threw a few legal-sized fish in the livewell for a group photo and then released them, too. 

The next two days the action was similar.  I added another angler to the boat in my daughter's boyfriend.  I also had to wear a white cotton glove on my right hand to protect my mutilated thumb.  Ashley and Adam, the two oldest kids, made fun of my "look" and called me "Michael Jackson."  The glove got a workout but the goofy "look" was worth it as we figured we'd caught well over 300 fish by the end of the weekend.  We kept six walleye and seven crappie and released the rest. 

The kids enjoyed it.  I fished a total of about 15 minutes in my boat and the lack of "me" time didn't bother me a bit.  Fishing is fun but catching is even better.  And when you're watching your kids fish AND catch it truly is special.