A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

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toddmc
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A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by toddmc » Wed Jun 27, 2018 1:21 pm

My hard-charging 9 year-old son didn’t hesitate, as usual, to say “yes” last night when I asked if he wanted to fish the golf course lakes in back of the house. What surprised me is that he asked if he could try casting tackle for the first time.
Flash back to a few months ago, when my son used his medium light spinning setup with 10 lb. braided line to cast a mini bladed jig along a tule line when a solid largemouth ambushed his bait and quickly went back into the tules before he could react. That 3 lb. fish broke his heart, but I was thoroughly entertained because I told him exactly where to cast to catch the aggressive resident fish, and he was able to do so. He asked what he could have done differently, and I suggested that he could use heavier casting tackle in a few years when I thought that he might be ready.
Back to last night, I reluctantly dug out an old retired custom 6’ medium Phenix rod that I had made around 1990. The rod hasn’t been in my regular arsenal for over a decade, but it holds a special place in my memories because I managed to catch a 4.5 pound spinnerbait fish on my first cast with that rod that won big fish and few hundred dollars in tournament when I was a broke college kid. I paired the rod with an old beat up Team Daiwa-X 103HSDF that I keep around for friends to use. Did I tell you that my son has a habit of leaving combos at the bottom of the lake?
My son’s first cast with the casting setup was only about 20 feet because I scared him about backlashing, and he has never seen his father do so. Did I tell you that I’m also full of it? His second cast was only about 30 feet, but this skinny post-spawn fish gobbled his swim jig. He got the fish in with no issues because I have been hooking and handing him off fish with my casting setups since he was old enough to walk.
He caught two more fish in the next few casts. This proud father thought that he might be a natural. Maybe the next KVD. Unfortunately, he only made it about 20 casts before his first major backlash. This un-pickable beauty still couldn’t take the smiles of accomplishment off of our faces.
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Cristo
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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by Cristo » Wed Jun 27, 2018 1:46 pm

Love it great story man thank you for sharing =D> :big grin:

toddmc
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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by toddmc » Wed Jun 27, 2018 2:02 pm

Cristo wrote:Love it great story man thank you for sharing =D> :big grin:
Thanks. I posted this a couple of days ago and it disappeared a few minutes later during the forum maintenance. I hope it's not because the brass hates me! :lol:

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Cal
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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by Cal » Wed Jun 27, 2018 2:33 pm

=D>
Cal, Managing Editor
"fish with mindfulness : beware the darkside"

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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by Cal » Wed Jun 27, 2018 2:33 pm

toddmc wrote:
Cristo wrote:Love it great story man thank you for sharing =D> :big grin:
Thanks. I posted this a couple of days ago and it disappeared a few minutes later during the forum maintenance. I hope it's not because the brass hates me! :lol:
nah.. we lost some posts over the weekend from the maintenance activities
Cal, Managing Editor
"fish with mindfulness : beware the darkside"

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Tokugawa
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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by Tokugawa » Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:54 pm

Awesome!!! =D> =D>

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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by wirinhar » Thu Jun 28, 2018 8:20 am

thanks for sharing!!!

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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by Cal » Thu Jun 28, 2018 8:38 am

Todd... an additional thought. Try spooling up another baitcaster, and when you have time, take your son out to the back yard, have him stand on a milk carton or some other box or step stool, and teach him how to pitch first. Tie on a casting plug or a frog - something with no hooks or that won't hang up. This will give him practice at controlling the spool with his thumb. Once he starts to gain distance, then take it to casting.

I taught both my son and my daughter in this fashion. Even before putting a spinning rod in their hands. ;)
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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by toddmc » Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:06 pm

Cal wrote:Todd... an additional thought. Try spooling up another baitcaster, and when you have time, take your son out to the back yard, have him stand on a milk carton or some other box or step stool, and teach him how to pitch first. Tie on a casting plug or a frog - something with no hooks or that won't hang up. This will give him practice at controlling the spool with his thumb. Once he starts to gain distance, then take it to casting.

I taught both my son and my daughter in this fashion. Even before putting a spinning rod in their hands. ;)
We spent a lot of time casting with the spincast Spiderman combo and a practice plug when he was 4 and 5. He outgrew the backyard with spincast and spinning tackle, but pitching with a baitcaster would be perfect. He is an animal. He would cast his plug into the neighbor's backyards as far as he could.
He was at Lake Havasu with me a few months ago when he casted his 4' Senko with spinning tackle over a thick 30 foot deep bank of tules onto the shore. I asked him why he did it because I had told him to stay away from the tules. He said "I just wanted to see if I could do it" :roll: . At least he stayed away from the tules.
I learned to pitch with a baitcaster in my backyard (minus the milk crate) with a coffee can when I was about 11. We do some creek fishing in the Eastern Sierras and the short pitching is important because we don't have much room to cast. Thanks for the suggestion. I've got plenty of backup rods and reels that he can use to practice. I think we wil try heavy braid (easier to pick out) and one of my old worn out frogs with the hook points cut.

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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by spookybaits » Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:29 pm

Good story man, made me smile big time. And good to see he caught a fish!
Maybe Santa will bring him a Daiwa SV reel for Christmas. Those SV spools are fantastic for beginners.

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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by toddmc » Mon Jul 02, 2018 1:52 pm

spookybaits wrote:Good story man, made me smile big time. And good to see he caught a fish!
Maybe Santa will bring him a Daiwa SV reel for Christmas. Those SV spools are fantastic for beginners.
I was thinking of letting him use one of my SV reels, but I don't have any of the floats for the rod :lol: . I'm sure that he will eventually get an SV reel.

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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by John G » Sun Nov 11, 2018 1:52 am

Great story and that backlash looks winnable if you have the patience. :D

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Re: A NIGHT WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Post by wirinhar » Sun Nov 11, 2018 7:02 am

Great story. great catch and great picture you got there. Thanks for sharing.
WW

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