I took my oldest son fishing for his first time this week. Let me back up slightly. We went to a med-large outdoor store and found his first fishing pole. Sweet little telescoping rod & reel combo in the theme of STAR WARS. yes!! The kit with was $14 also included a backback, sun glasses, tackle box with Stormtrooper cover, practice rubber casting fish. All in all an ok deal. He loved he. We talk about fishing, I show him the pictures on the way out of the store with everyones mega sized fish, come home and even dig for worms in the garden.
Load up the bike with kid-trailer and head to the closest pond. Get to the pond and by now he has befriended all the worms and even had names for them, so it came as a shock when I took good ol'Barnie and skewered him to a hook.
The set up is a total junker, its no propeal pocket fisherman but it was cheap, star wars, he loved it good enough. After a stretching the line I get the set up out to the weed line. We are fishing.
He is set and ready. I rig up my biking Tenkara rod, a Diawa 33SF and start to cast. No fish right away and while I am checking on Jack, I notice he is already tangled in the weeds. So, I hand him the tenkara rod, explain to keep the tip high and go work on his set up. Not 2 seconds later he is already on a fish! He is screaming and of course my natural instinct was to grab the rod, so he doesn't break it but I notice that this fish has a little bit more muscle then a bluegill. We fight the fish together for a short time, get him in and jeepers the boy just caught himself a bass. First fish ever on a Tenkara rod with a fly I tied. Hash-tag proudpappa.
And as if that wasn't enough he also got a solid sized bluegill and we caught a few more small bass and more bluegills. During all the excitement I also notice that the Star Wars rod bobber rig was in the same place with no fish on.
Once again TENKARA out fishes standard tackle. And best of all, done by a 4 year old.
