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!