Not Always About the Fish

Many of us enjoy taking our significant others out for a fishing trip, but I'm sure there are plenty who don't always get the opportunity to do it as often as we'd like. Schedules don't always match up or the weather isn't good or any one of a host of other things that pop up in our daily lives can prevent from going and when we do get them out, sometimes the fishing itself isn't hot, but it doesn't really matter.

What matters more, is spending some quality time in the outdoors with those special people in our lives. I myself always want to take my lovely wife out, but it can be long periods of time before things work out.

So early in the evening recently, we had some time to head out to the docks at Pactola, where I wanted to try and see if there were any panfish, especially crappies, biting in the evening under the docks.

I brought out my Vexilar flashers, since we were going to be vertically jigging with ice rods and tackle and was excited for her to use one for the first time (she won't come ice fishing with me yet, but I'm still working on that) and she doesn't care if the fish are big or small, she's just happy catching fish, which in turn makes me happy to see her having a good time.

I expected to see plenty of small bluegills caught since they hang around the docks in numbers and since she won't touch maggots or waxworms, she used corn, which has worked well for her in the past on panfish.

I was using Mummy Worms from Eurotackle, since you can't find spikes or waxies in town till ice season and they work just as well as waxies do and you can get them all year long through their website or in stores.

We probably hit the lake a bit too late for a good bite and Melissa caught the only fish of the evening before it got dark, but it didn't matter. She was happy to beat me in the biggest, smallest, and most fish categories once again and I was happy to be out fishing with her and let her experience what fishing is with a Vexilar.

Our time spent fishing is always so precious to me and I enjoy it to the fullest no matter how the fish are biting. As it gets colder outside in the mornings and evenings, our trips out together will be fewer, so it's important to appreciate the time we do have outside and enjoy it. After all, it's not always about the fish.