DHaun
Well-known member
I took my son out fishing today just the two of us launching from the RiverPark ramp about 9:30am. I told him I was going to teach him shiner fishing, spoon jigging, and maybe troll with some crankbaits. I knew if I was taking a 9 year old boy fishing in the cold that he would quickly become bored if we were not busy catching something. We started up by the Dam and struck out on the shiners...We bounced them in various holes and humps all the way to the golf course. My son got hung up a few times and his hands were cold and hurting. I felt bad after a couple hours or so and we had not done any good. I had a couple decent fish take off with the line but the shiner would just pull out of their mouth - I could not seem to ever get a hook up and was getting frustrated.
I decided to go to a river hole that normally holds some yellow bass and we started catching them with jigging spoons I showed my son how to use a spoon jig, how it represented a dying shad, and how they would hit on the fall etc...he quickly got the hang of it and started to have fun. We were having a little contest keeping count of who caught what. We both had about 8 fish each when we saw MrWiskers, AlvinC, and CoWorker drift by. We were catching fish here and there in about 25-30ft, eating snacks having a pleasant time in almost zero wind conditions. Water temp was 47.
About 30 minutes later we topped off the day when my son caught this 5lb-8oz smallmouth. I thought for the longest he just had a cat or a drum as I hardly ever catch any smallmouth out of this hole...it was shaking its head and pulling the line way under the boat. I was coaching him just to keep the line tight. I grabbed the net and almost fainted when he pulled this beautiful fish up from under the boat. We quickly landed it, weighed it, took a few pics, and released it. It swam away strong and after a few high fives we called it day and left about 2pm. The whole time I was telling him what a huge deal it was to land a fish like this at his age and I raved about it all the way home. He was all smiles. The fish was jigged up in about 15 ft of water on a 1/4 oz spoon on the downstream end of the hole where it comes up from 25ft to 10ft.
Total for the Day: 1 Lm, 2 Spaaats, 16 Yellow Bass, and a Nice 5lb-8oz Smallmouth all caught on jigging spoons. All fish safely released.
I decided to go to a river hole that normally holds some yellow bass and we started catching them with jigging spoons I showed my son how to use a spoon jig, how it represented a dying shad, and how they would hit on the fall etc...he quickly got the hang of it and started to have fun. We were having a little contest keeping count of who caught what. We both had about 8 fish each when we saw MrWiskers, AlvinC, and CoWorker drift by. We were catching fish here and there in about 25-30ft, eating snacks having a pleasant time in almost zero wind conditions. Water temp was 47.
About 30 minutes later we topped off the day when my son caught this 5lb-8oz smallmouth. I thought for the longest he just had a cat or a drum as I hardly ever catch any smallmouth out of this hole...it was shaking its head and pulling the line way under the boat. I was coaching him just to keep the line tight. I grabbed the net and almost fainted when he pulled this beautiful fish up from under the boat. We quickly landed it, weighed it, took a few pics, and released it. It swam away strong and after a few high fives we called it day and left about 2pm. The whole time I was telling him what a huge deal it was to land a fish like this at his age and I raved about it all the way home. He was all smiles. The fish was jigged up in about 15 ft of water on a 1/4 oz spoon on the downstream end of the hole where it comes up from 25ft to 10ft.
Total for the Day: 1 Lm, 2 Spaaats, 16 Yellow Bass, and a Nice 5lb-8oz Smallmouth all caught on jigging spoons. All fish safely released.
