Good Laughs and Easy Fishing

Sometimes when the going gets tough, you just find a spot where you know you will catch fish, even if the size of the fish isn't the most desirable. With the Sturgis Rally happening this week, my wife and I had a college friend visiting for the week who wanted to attend it.

Jared has visited us before for the Rally and we're always happy to have him visit. So I had the day off a few days back and asked him if he wanted to give fishing a go for one morning, not knowing if he wanted to since he said he hasn't fished in at least twenty years. But he agreed to come and spend the day with me and I planned a trip to Pactola to a couple of spots where I'd caught trout in the past and hoped there would be a few around.

After some initial lessons on using a spinning reel (an old Zebco was the last reel he'd used), we both began casting away and I was impressed by how quickly he picked up on using the reel and achieving some distance in the casts.

Well, no trout were interested in any of our spoons, so after a couple of hours I suggested we go and fish off the marina docks for suspended bluegills using flashers and a couple of St. Croix ice rods I kept spooled up for the summer.

In the past, the docks have always held bluegills under them and they aren't the hardest to catch, though the size is rarely big. But I wanted to show him a good time and it was the backup plan in case the trout fishing didn't pan out.

We positioned ourselves in the corners along the docks and I showed Jared how to read the flasher screen as well as how to use an inline reel and within a minute of dropping down, he caught his first bluegill.

I set him up with a Northland Tackle Mitee Mouse jig and had him rig it with Mummy Worms from Eurotackle since finding waxworms and maggots this time of year is very difficult and they worked great for him!

I was using a Clam Half Ant Drop rigged with a Maki Jamei and also experienced a lot of success with it. We spent just over an hour there and we both caught a bunch of fish and had some good laughs chatting and making comments on the sizes we were catching, though he did managed to catch a very nice sunfish in between the smaller 'gills.

As I said, it wasn't the hardest fishing or the biggest fish, but we didn't care. Just getting a chance to hang out and have a few laughs while showing him some fishing techniques was all the reward either of us needed, the fish were just a bonus.

That's one of the best things about fishing, just getting to hang with friends or family and sharing some good chats and laughs. Plus, I got to use my Vexilar FLX-28 again for the first time since the ice left, so now I'm in the mood for cold weather! Have fun with your friends no matter the fish size and enjoy the last weeks of summer. Fall and winter are fast approaching.