Stories of fishing with kids and grandkids

Our daughter Hilary was 8 or 9 when I took her down Sourdahunk Lake in the boat to fish a favorite spot. Hilary was fishing from the front of the boat with the same fly I was using from the back of the boat. And she caught nine brook trout while I caught nothing.

Hilary felt bad for me and suggested that we swap places and rods, so we did. And with her first cast with my rod she caught a nice brook trout. And I told her, “Hilary, you are already a better angler than your dad!”

Up to camp one summer, I took my 8-year-old grandson Vishal fishing in a small pool on Sourdahunk Stream. I would cast the fly and hand V the rod and he would catch and reel in the trout, which I would release.

After a while, V said he’d like to cast, so I showed him how to do it and very quickly he was doing a good job of casting. And he was catching a lot of trout. Eventually he told me he would like to release the fish so I showed him how to do that and he quickly mastered it.

V’s 25th trout was very big, and as he released it into the stream he looked up and said, “Grampy, we’re both very happy.” Boy, he got that right!

 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.