If I've learned anything about taking kids fishing, it's that keeping their time on the water limited and then filling that time with food and drinks is pretty vital to having a good trip. I packed sandwiches, threw in some Gatorade, and let them each pick a snack. I also arranged for my parents to pick the kids up after about an hour. It all worked out perfectly. Hayden took a little while to get her sea legs and I made her very nervous as I moved all over the boat and rocked it a little bit. She eventually settled in, but she felt more secure sitting on the floor and stayed there for the duration. Luke just wanted to drive the boat. I let him steer us a couple hundred yards away from the launch and then we anchored to catch some bait and eat our sack dinner. We caught one sucker. Luke was already to thump it on the head and cut it up on the spot. Hayden wanted nothing to do with that. She said that she felt sorry for the fish and didn't think it was nice for me to kill it for bait. I slipped it into the livewell and changed the subject. When the kids were done eating, I took them for a little ride around the river. Hayden liked going under the bridge. Luke enjoyed sitting in my lap and steering. The hour went pretty quickly and my parents showed up just as it started to sprinkle. Good timing.
After I dropped the kids off, I went under the bridge to cut up my bait. I checked the water temperature and was surprised that it had come up several degrees. The temperature sensor read 62 degrees. I thought that this would likely translate into fish. I spent the first hour of my night at the snag across from the gun club. All I got up there was a turtle gnawing on a piece of my cutbait. At close to 10:00 I got a call from my dad saying that the kids were having a hard time settling in. I talked to both of them. Hayden sounded tired and exasperated with Luke. Luke sounded a little homesick. He said he wished that the room in Grandpa's house looked like his room. I did my best to settle them both and it sounds like they were then able to calm down. Either that or my parents were very patient with them and decided to let me fish. I barely got a tap on the cutbait for the rest of the night. Fortunately I decided to try some dipbait. I threw out some Sonny's and pretty quickly got a nice tug. I messed up the hookset and reeled in nothing but an empty dip worm. After re-loading, I was able to stick a scrappy little fish. I followed it up with one that was a little bigger. By then it was close to midnight and I decided that I'd better head home so that I wouldn't have too rough of a start to my week. I left thinking that I probably could have caught a lot more fish if I would have fished the Sonny's as my primary bait.
It's hard to imagine that these fish were down there scavenging through the flats and passing up on those big, fatty pieces of sucker. It doesn't make logical sense, but sometimes you have to forget logic and just try stuff. I'll keep in mind that Sonny's is a great option on those nights when the fish are snubbing the cutbait.
I loved having Hayden and Luke out there and especially that it seemed like a really good experience for them. Once Hayden knew that we were going, she told all the neighbors. She even made up little songs about going fishing. It's a beautiful thing to see my kids get excited about being on the water. I feel like they both had a great time and I think that keeping it to an hour left them wanting more. The only thing I'll change next time is minimizing the sugar intake so they can settle in for Grandma and Grandpa. Well, that and spiking their Gatorade with Children's Benadryl.
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