Dinks catching dinks and Urban Warfare

With the misses at work and the tween off at her friends house, it looked like I might get in some Daddy/(younger)daughter time. Since she has been bugging for the past month of Fridays to go fishing, it looked time to cash in on that.


I quickly butchered some of her old sweatpants and we were ready for business.


We were at her mothers house outside of Philadelphia. I've never fished this area before by myself and really had no idea where to go that would be kid friendly(i.e. lots of stupid fish.) I had to stop in for some bait anyway(Ava's a lil too lil for a fly rod yet) so I stopped in at Tackle Box and Beyond. Nice little shop and they even have a small fly fishing section.


While there I asked about a good spot to go and the lady directed me to a spot she just left that she said she was pulling out panfish "right and left." She even wrote down the directions.


A very big kudos and thank you, mysterious stranger!!


With a combination of the gal's directions and Siri(I really should learn this area better.....) we were there in no time and walking back the trail.


The trail was a smaller trail that branched off one of the major urban hiking trails in the area. Even the smaller trail received a fair amount of traffic but no fisherman were to be seen. It's very odd to this semi-country boy to be able to go from a residential area to what seems the heart of the wilderness in the span of a football field.


I guided her hands on the first few casts but we were having trouble getting out into the pool. I saw a gill near the bank so we lobbed it to him.




Fish on!

Fish quickly to hand. I then showed her how to wet her hands before handling the fish and how to properly release it(which is, despite her first attempt, not chucking it out into the middle of the stream. She did get better, I promise....)


After that she was done with casting. It then became Daddy's job to cast and hook and her job to reel in and release once I had it off the hook. Between fish, she figured her time was best spent splashing and trying to give the fish heart attacks. Easier to bring to hand, I guess.
 This way we got about 10 to hand, with another 10 or so that suffered from premature release(no, not the kind to be had in Asian massage parlors.) Sizes ranged from bait size to one's with some heft so it was a nice mix. 


So as it stands now, this kid is whooping me in fish this year. But that's ok. I just won't take until I catch up. :-)


Afterwards we feasted our triumph.