Fishing with my kid, Zev

Zev has already been fishing with me a number of times but for me today was a monumental day. I’ve been away from the water for a few months now and in that time Zev has continued to grow into the little monkey that he is. He’s now the age to where be can really begin to learn and understand – as well as enjoy the excitement that fly fishing has to offer. I’m grateful for technology so that I can always capture moments like this with my phone.

He’d been holding his toy fishing pole all morning, and matched with a toy shark, he’d been jibber jabbering about fishing non stop. Since the lady would be busy much of the day I decided a spur of the moment fishing trip was in order. I had one piece of water in mind but wasn’t sure if conditions would be ideal for a fishing trip with a 3-year-old kid. They weren’t. We relocated to a nearby pond and after pulling up I got out to scope the conditions. Tons of cruisers in the clear water. Perfect.

The next couple hours were some of the funnest on the water in a long time. Fishing with young kids can be a challenge, but armed with a 3wt we caught fish on top and incited some gnarly chases with streamers. Our method of landing the fish varied. On some Zev would hold the rod and I would strip or reel the fish in, others I would help him with the reel retrieve. I’m still not sure the best way to do it. He was having a good time so I guess that’s all that matters.

After releasing one of the fish and with his arms spread wide he exclaimed, “Dad, I wanna catch one this big!”

“You wanna catch another big one?”, I responded.

“No, I wanna catch a huge one!” Cracked me up.

The most memorable fish of the day also happened to be the largest. I set the hook and could feel immediately that she had some weight to her. Z-man helped with the retrieve and when it came time to land the fish I got the net and for the first time he landed it all by himself. “Pull the rod up and pull the fish into daddy!” It was so cool to see him cranking back on the rod to slide it into the net.

We may have not gotten into the “huge” fish he had hoped for, but I know we’ll have plenty of chances to land more memorable fish in the years to come. Stoked.