This story comes to us from Paul in Willowick, Ohio. He writes:

Fishing has been passed from generation to generation by my family. My father taught me to fish at just about the age my son is in this picture and I am now beginning to pass the fun activity on to him. 

My boy, Carter, is five. This is probably the third or fourth time he’s gone fishing with me and his Pap-pap, my father-in-law (the arm helping him hold his catch). On this day we were fishing in a lake near Farmington, PA, just working the banks and we weren’t having a whole lot of luck.

To change things up I changed lures and pulled two tried and true black and silver floating Rapalas from my tackle box, one for me and one for my son. In my family it seems that right after learning to cast, we were taught to tie a black and silver Rapala on the of line. I don’t think I ever saw my father fish with anything else. In fact, we laid him to rest with his fishing rod and a Rapala tied to the end of the line.

Well, shortly after we started throwing them I looked down into the clear water and saw this fish take the bait. My son set the hook and reeled him in all by himself. He was the first one of us to catch a fish after we made the lure change. Even more special was that this was the first fish he has ever caught. Not a bad haul for the first time out. That large mouth bass probably weighed in close to 2 lbs and was about 15″ long. 

Like any good fisherman, he told that tale that it was much bigger and much heavier to Mom and Grandma when he got home.

Thanks, Paul, for that story and photo.

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