Pass It On

Every now and then my thoughts go back to my younger days as a lad and relive those great times people helped create in my life. Most of them center around my dad, Jerry Lyle as he was an avid outdoorsman and took us six boys along on a regular basis. But there were other men that helped form some of those memories.

The outdoors community realizes the need to get the youth of our day involved so our hunting, fishing and just enjoying anything that involves being in the wild carried on to the next generation.

Youth hunting days have been established and are very successful as participation grows every year. More and more young girls are also getting involved in hunting and fishing as we see about the same amount of pictures of them taking game and catching fish as the young boys. This is a really good thing.

The expression on their faces tells the story of the enjoyment they experience. I have never been around kids that don’t enjoy some aspect of outdoors recreation and it’s a very healthy avenue of entertainment.

Last Saturday I got to experience one of those memory creating days with a couple of really nice guys. My son Wesley invited me for a morning of fishing on the Amite River. My four year old grandson Canaan asked to go along with us and we agreed.

Now we both knew this trip wouldn’t be like a normal bass fishing trip. A four year old young boy in the boat is not quite the same as having another man in the boat and taking him along required some sacrifice. But that’s how it’s done; give up a little of your pleasure to create a memory that will last a lifetime in three people’s minds.

It was 46 degrees as we launched the boat, so extra precautions needed to be taken to keep him warm on the ride. So in addition to all the clothes we put on him, his “Nemo” blanket came along for the ride. Plenty of snacks had to be brought along for added interest in case he got bored. They included some of his other favorite characters including Spiderman.

As we all know, artificial baits have hooks on them, so extra caution had to be taken to keep any of us from a trip to the emergency room for hook removal. Of course the changing of baits is normally increased many times over, “just because.” “Paw Paw, what kind of bait is that? Put one of those on my pole” was said more than once.

But we were pleasantly surprised as his behavior was quite good. He would “fish” a little while and occupy himself with exploring the boat, eating snacks and just standing next to me or Wesley, playing the game 100 questions if you know what I mean.

Oh yea, we did catch a few bass. The water was a little low and the east wind was blowing. You know the saying, “Wind blows from the east, fish bite the least. Wind blows from the west, fish bite the best.” But the water was very pretty and we got three to fall for a crank bait one on a spinner bait and one took a brush hog.

When the water cools off, a crank bait needs to be retrieved very slowly. This takes a lot of discipline because of high speed reels on the market today. A wide wobbled bait like a bandit is a good choice and you need to reel it so slow that each wobble is felt. That’s really slow but it works if you can make yourself do it.

As the morning went on, the action on our plastic baits got really better but we couldn’t hook them up. We swung on about 10 more fish, saw a couple of them that were bass but they wouldn’t stay buttoned up. Great day, great weather, great company; I don’t think a guy could ask for much more.

Get involved with introducing a youngster to the outdoors in some way. If hunting or fishing doesn’t interest them, take them for a hike with a pair of binoculars and let them see some of God’s creation. So until next time, have fun in the outdoors, be safe and may God truly bless you!!