There’s so many ways to enjoy a guided fishing trip. The first and primary goal is always to catch fish, but especially with younger anglers we sometimes have to find other ways to keep the kids entertained. We started this morning bright and early at 8am with a quick run across Grand Lake, quickly learning that a slight breeze and a boat with low gunwales means we’re going to get wet. I felt bad about that for a little while but by the end of the day the kids were rooting for the biggest boat waves for more soakings and I no longer felt bad about that early morning adventure. There were never any waves big enough for the kids on this day but we certainly tried. And we certainly found plenty of ways to have fun.

On this outing we had Emmett, Ben, and Jack out to Grand Lake on the hopes of catching some smallmouth bass. We were forced to find areas out of the wind for most of the day, and we found that pretty quickly by tucking into a cove near the homes of Sydney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. For a few young hockey fans being close to their hockey heroes was plenty enough, but discovering a good number of smallies near Sid’s dock definitely helped. Unfortunately for the kids we didn’t luck into a Sid or Nathan sighting, but we were all plenty satisfied with some decent smallie fishing.

Can I mention the Snacklebox? I did my best to encourage eating the healthier options of the snacklebox but I totally failed. If you have a method for getting kids to choose delicious snap peas or grapes over gummies and mini Oreos I’d love to know your secrets.

The wind was the story on this day, it kept us from fishing some areas we were hoping to fish, but it also kicked up a good chop on the water which might have been the favourite part of the day. That early morning soaking was just a teaser for when it got hotter around mid-day and we all were rooting for a cooling off on account of the wind and waves. And when the fishing kept us from hitting waves it turns out there’s some really good spots on the back of the boat to dangle the feet for a quick cooling off.

Our last spot of the day was another area tucked out of the wind and the activity was immediate. Smallies were jumping clear of the water chasing dragonflies so we tucked in to the cover and put a solid effort into catching some of these hungry bass. We didn’t catch a ton of fish in this area but with constant surface activity we had no reason to complain. Every splash was another excuse for excited casts and increased desire to hook into some fish. And it was Emmett who had the hot hand, catching a few bass in this area including our largest bass of the day.

After a solid 4 hours of fishing and fun with the older boys, we took some extra time in the afternoon to take young Elliot and his mom out for a quick run. Poor Elliot apparently spent the morning moping at having missed out on the fun out on the lake so I happily loaded him and his mom into the boat for some overtime fishing fun. I really need to consider adding some spincast rods to the arsenal but luckily Elliot took to the spinning reel pretty quickly and was firing out ever improving casts for over an hour, happily hunting for his opportunity to land a big one. And that we did, finally getting Elliot into a good pickerel after a few smaller fish were lost before they made it in the boat.

The bait of the day was small swimbaits on a 1/8 oz jig head. This was an ideal bait for the kids today as there’s no wrong way to fish a swimbait. Quick retrieve, no problem. Slow steady retrieve, sure! Stop reeling entirely and let the swimbait drag on bottom as the boat drifts, that’ll work too! We might have lost a few jigs on the day, but we made it all day without anyone swimming (came close with Elliot!), nobody got hooked, and everyone left with a smile on their face. We had a great day, the kids were very well behaved, and I’m happy to have spent a day with these fantastic kids put some fish in the boat.