A fine way to spend a weekend

[WV Sawmiller]

  Last weekend was one of those rare ones. My daughter and our 5 y/o GD and 7 y/o GS came up for the weekend to attend our oldest (18 y/o) GD graduation party. They left Charlotte NC and called in route updates so we met them at the local COE Bluestone Lake. We had just launched the boat when they pulled up about 6:30 pm when the sun was mostly down and things were cooling off a bit.

  We got the kids in their life jackets, Sampson settled in the boat and I, my wife, daughter and the kids shoved off. I only motored a few hundred yards then shut off the 25hp Johnson outboard and moved to the front to operate the foot controlled electric trolling motor. My GS sat beside me and our GD sat on the back seat with my wife. I pulled out 2- 10' fiberglass bream poles and put 1" pieces of nightcrawler with a float about 15" deep.

    We eased along the bank pitching the baits out among the rocks where the green sunfish and small bluegills are plentiful. Sometimes the kids moved their baits sometimes the adults helped place them more accurately in a likely spot. Our GD caught 3-4 small fish before my GS landed one. His fish kept running under the rocks and broke his line a couple times before he landed one.

    My daughter and sometimes my wife would take a picture of them with their catch. Sampson loves to bark at catfish but not a bream but he made an exception for a couple of out GD catches. The kids thought it was real funny with him growling and snarling and barking at the 4" fish. I was throwing the fish back in the lake and finally my GD caught a hand/eating sized bluegill with really put up a fight including getting hung in a tree top and around a limb. I finally got all that free and the fish in the boat but made the mistake of tossing it back in the lake. Have you ever seen smoke coming out of a 5 y/o girls ears? It is a scary sight I am here to say!

  The next 3 times she landed an eating sized bluegill it went in the livewell! Darkness sneaked up on us and after catching 15-20 little bream and keeping the 3 biggest ones we packed it in, motored back to the landing and unloaded the kids then I drove the boat up on the trailer, pulled out and secured it and our gear and we went home.

  At home I quickly cleaned the 3 bream while my daughter got the kids bathed and my wife fixed spaghetti. We ate and I read a little bit of the FF snake hunting tale with the kids constantly asking "Did that really happen? Is that a true story?" I confess I did not lie to them.

    The next day I woke up with a sore throat and afraid I'd picked up a strep virus but everyone else was okay. I did not go to the graduation party to be safe but the rest of the family went and had a fine time with their cousins, aunt and uncle who all spoil them rotten. When they got home I fried a mess of catfish from the last trip they came up on and the 3 bluegills, and along with grits, cole slaw and baked beans and we had a fine meal. I kept telling my GS the catfish were the ones he had caught on his last trip and he really liked them. I offered but neither wanted any of the bluegills so I ate all of them.

    My daughter took the kids outside and threw some blankets on the fresh mowed grass and they watched fireflies and the stars and waited for the strawberry moon to come up till about 10:00 pm then she put them to bed.

  The next morning we had a big breakfast of Grandma's biscuits, grits, bacon and sausage and the kids packed up and headed back home to Charlotte with another stop off at the lake. We took the boat out again but it was much hotter, very windy and lots of weekend boat traffic so the fishing was slower but the kids still managed to land a few whoppers. When we returned to the landing and loaded the boat and secured everything our GD was very insistent her mom needed to stay another week or so but finally relented that Daddy missed her and she needed to go help him walk the dog so she very reluctantly agreed to go with the promise to come back soon. We may even put some catfish lines out then.

  I finally finished the last of the of the leftover catfish which also makes fine fish sandwiches and now we just have to plan the next trip out.

[thecfarm]

Lucky you!! And them to have someone like you to share life with.

[doc henderson]

What a great reward to, after all your travels and service, wind up close enough to family to play a part in that nest generation.  It appears that more of that is needed in the world.

[YellowHammer]

That was a great read and great time.