Quality Time Outdoors

Last weekend my oldest son and I had about 24 hours to head up to the cabin at our family farm in rural northwest Missouri.  We had a few things to get accomplished and none of them were pressing.  The most important thing was to hit the water and try to catch some largemouth.  A cold front came through last Friday that dropped temperatures and brought in a north wind.  Regarless, we had a chance to go fishing and we did so with the hope that regular fishing rules about post front conditions and not going forth with wind from the north don't apply as strongly to farm ponds.

Right off the bat, my son cast out his push-button reel with a John Deere mini jig under a bobber.  He claimed he had a fish but I was pretty sure that he was caught in some grass.  I was wrong.  Way to go son!

After that excitement, we started to work a plastic worm on the edges of grass that extended from the banks to the main body of the lake.  I was happy to hook the bass and Mason was glad to reel them in.  He did a great job landing a nice 2 pound bass and beamed with pride.  This was the biggest fish he has landed in his life.

We then decided to take a break from fishing and hang some trail cameras for the upcoming deer season.  We hung two cameras and in the process came across a young 7 point buck that seemed less spooked by our presence and more confused.  He slowly trotted away while occasionally looking over his shoulder.  We capped things off by pouring some plaster in a deep deer track and prying up the cast after it had dried.

The rest of the night included roasting hot dogs, making coyote calls, and telling ghost stories.  The smell of skunk woke us up at 5:20 and we decided to sleep in about 10 more minutes to avoid a secondary spraying.

I ended up catching one bass on a fly rod using a popper but working a plastic worm along the grass edges provided 6 more bass.  Mason also did a great job running the boat for the rest of the morning and put me in position to land more fish than I could have by myself.  The morning concluded by cleaning all of our fish for the owners of the lake.

While we didn't have a lot of time in terms of quantity, we sure made the most of it and made it quality.  I hope that he is able to look back on times like these when he is older and smile because I know I will.