Outdoors with the kids

[WV Sawmiller]

   I hardly know where to start. What a wonderful weekend! My daughter came up yesterday with our 6 y/o GD and 8 y/O GS. She came up to pick up our 17 y/o GD and take her back to Charlotte to compete in a live Monopoly contest there tomorrow.  Our daughter wanted us to take the little kids fishing so we agreed to meet her at the lake as she passes the boat landing on the way to our house. I decided to put out a few catfish lines as the kids enjoy that too,

   My wife and I left about 11:00 am to go to the lake. I had caught and dug and collected a few night crawlers and wigglers before we left and put out minnow traps to bait the hooks with as a start before we caught bream. I got lucky in my bait collecting as I turned over a short log looking for worms and found it had a yelllowjacket nest on the bottom but I did not get stung. I stopped and bout a bag of ice and another dozen night crawlers.


   At the lake I rushed to my big new fallen tree and put out about 8-10 line and a few just downstream. My wife and I fished a few minutes and found we were in the middle of a mayfly hatch and a feeding frenzy.

    There was no cell service so I motored back to the truck about 1:00pm and found our daughter and the kids waiting so picked them up and went back to the fishing spot and they immediately started jerking bluegills out of the lake. I was super busy trying to take fish off, bait hooks on and get them out of the treetops. After an hour or so we stopped and went and baited our lines with bluegills and I just left the creek minnows on the hook. One 4 lb channel cat was on the line and I let my GD pull it in with the landing net which made it her first ever catfish. 

   I went a few hundred yards to a cove and explained to my GS what a Smokehouse was like my Grandfather always called his special spots where he went to get the meat. I put one line by a big log that has yielded several 20+ lb catfish over the years, another on a sycamore where he landed a 20 lb fish last year and a couple more in the area. We went on a photo run up the lake and saw several young Bald Eagles and Osprey trying to catch fish right in front of us We saw on adult (White head and tail) adult eagle and deer and tons of blue herons. We even watched one coon running the bank. 

    My GS tried his hand at driving the boat. He needs some more work on it but at least he did not run into a bridge like my son did on his first try. My GS decided we needed to have catfish for lunch so we headed home. At home I cleaned the catfish and defrosted a small pack of bluegills while my wife and daughter made potato salad (GD favorite), cole slaw, and baked beans. I fried the fish and the catfish was plenty for all 5 of us with enough left over for a couple of fish sandwiches.

   After dinner the kids wanted to go on a 4 wheeler ride so I told them we'd go look for baby deer. At the shed we spotted an old doe up in the field. We rode past her and made the loop then went back to check on the doe again. I got closer this time and we saw her fawn with her so the kids got to watch the mama and spotted fawn run off. A few yards later I rode through some weeds and a pair of spotted fawns jumped up so they saw them too.

   Our 17 Y/O GD came over late after finished VBS at their church for the week so they all were a little late getting to bed. I let them sleep in this morning and we were going to go run/take up the lines and come right back. At the big tree there was one obvious fish on so I let my GD try to pull it in once I got it in the net. It was about 11 bl channel cat and she had to get her brother to help her. We picked up one more and I found one line up in the bank where an otter had stolen a fish or a monk had dragged the bait off. Just down from there a coon ran up the bank and when we looked under the rock where she came from we spotted  4 baby coons int he rocks where she had just left. They looked to be 2-3 months old and would peak out at us. I took up a line with a bluegill still on it and tossed the bream to the coons. It landed on the rocks in front and one came out sniffing the air and it flopped and the coon pounced on it, took it back int he den and we heard vicious snarling. We have raised them and they do not share their food with others! I took anther bait off and went back to the den, cut it up and tossed it and we watched the coons probably half an hour as they come out, grab a fish head and run back inside or just peer out curiously.

   I went up to the cove to collect the remaining lines and said we'd return and fish around the coons and such. At the cove where we had the 20 lb fish last year this time we had a young blue heron. Its mate or parent was about 30' away and would not leave. I got to the bord and he was hooked in the bottom of his chin and it was not too hard to get him free but took a while to get the line unwrapped where he had tangled it in his wings. Once free I took him to the tree where its mate/parent had been a perched. It was very tired but looked otherwise okay so I hope he makes it okay. 

   At my big log "Smokehouse" I had a line slowly circling like a great big old flahead will do so I had my hopes up but it turned out to just be a 2.5 lb channel. I was surprised to catch one that small as I had put a pretty big bluegill on for bait.

   We went back to the coon den and dished around there and caught a dozen or so bream and tossed them to the coons. Some flopped back free, some got eaten but the kids had a blast just watching the baby coons. I had left my camera in my truck so got no pictures but my wife and daughter did.

   It was near noon so we came home and I put the catch in a tub of cold water and cleaned them after lunch. We had just over 25 lbs of catfish for todays catch. Not a lot but I only had out about 20 lines and lost one to an otter and saw where at least one more twisted off.

   The main thing is that the kids had a blast. They live in the city and I love it when they can come to the country and see things like baby coons, fawns, herons, eagles, etc. I can't wait till they come back again.

[doc henderson]

Those kids are sure lucky.  Lifelong memories.