Last December I got a request for a gift card, Marie wanted to take her grandchildren out for a fishing trip, but obviously wanted to wait for when the weather forecast was less likely to include snow. Because I didn’t really plan ahead for gift cards I had to get a little creative, and we came up with a few gift lures that Marie could wrap up for the kids.

On this morning we started with 3 new anglers who all needed instruction on how to operate a spinning reel. Within minutes everyone was firing casts at will: Aiden took to a very effective side-arm cast. Maddie perfected her overhand cast and never once made a bad cast. Marie took to speed casting, obviously figuring out very quickly that the best way to catch more fish was to make more casts, and she never slowed down. My job was easy on this day.

As for the fishing, we started our day with all three anglers hooking smallmouth bass, unfortunately in the excitement that smallmouth tend to bring we only managed to put one of the three smallmouth into the boat. We unfortunately lost more fish than we landed on this day but that didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits on the day. The rain showers that came through for most of the morning certainly dampened some things though.

On any guided trip the ultimate goal is to provide a fun and hopefully exciting outing. when we’re losing a lot of fish I definitely get concerned about how to keep my guests engaged and entertained; especially when the weather is not cooperating. When we finished our morning trip I had some time before an afternoon outing and offered to take everyone out to fish some lilypads near the boat launch for pickerel. Despite already fishing for a solid 4 hours through rain showers with less than ideal rain gear (for all of us), Maddie and Aiden were happy to head back out for a few more casts. The ultimate goal in any outing is for my guests to learn a little bit, to bring a little bit (or a lot) of excitement, and to have everyone leave with a smile on their face. I think we accomplished these goals on this day.