Took my 10 yr old son up to the pond for the last hour of the day to get him out of the house. Unfortunately fishing is not in his blood for some reason and it is rare for him to agree to go with me. He fished for crappie and lost 2, while I caught 1 little bass on the...    Read More

Took my 10 yr old son up to the pond for the last hour of the day to get him out of the house. Unfortunately fishing is not in his blood for some reason and it is rare for him to agree to go with me. He fished for crappie and lost 2, while I caught 1 little bass on the dropshot. I opted to try for cats for the last 30 mins and tossed out a piece of hotdog, a long-time favorite bait at this place and because I didn't have any mackerel in the freezer.

About 20 mins later, I look over and the reel is half empty (I leave the bail open - lost 2 rods here before!), my son runs over and picks it up and set the hook. I let him fight it for about 5 mins, but then he decides it is more than he can handle once it gets all the line back and the fish is directly in front of him. Actually it scared him when the fish rolled about 10 feet off the shore and he realized how big it was!

I took over and fought it on the 6 lb for another 3 mins before the hook pulled. Best estimate from seeing it roll looked to be between 12-15lbs. He couldn't stop talking about it the rest of the night and says he wants to go back every evening and do it again. Next time I'll go with a little more focus on the targeted species so that he actually gets to land one and I can get a picture to post up.

Hide Description