Summer Fun

As summer starts winding down here in North Eastern Colorado and the kids get ready to go back to school tomorrow. I felt it was due time to reflect back on the past few months and compose my thoughts on our fishing adventures. This summer was unlike any I have experienced so far since I moved home 9 years ago. It was probably the coolest temps I've ever seen for starters. We had a few days that broke the 100 degree barrier and a couple weeks were it stayed in the high 90's. But for the most part it stayed in the mid to high 80's for the better part of the season. So with all that nice weather you would think I had been fishing every single day if I could. Sadly it was not so. I got out a few times but nothing like I have in former years. The bass fishing was alright when I did get some reel time in. I never caught anything over 3 lbs though. That being said I did get to share some more than usual quality fishing moments with my girls. Natty and Addie are 8 and 5 and both have taken to fishing like ducks on water. Natty is quite the fly angler already and I can see her becoming a very skilled angler before she hits her teens. Addison or AJ for short doesn't really have the patients for it yet, but she enjoys going along and can throw a rock at the water like nobody's business. For our first outing the girls and I just went down to the boat dock at Stalker Lake and tossed poppers to bluegills. The Colorado State bluegill record hails from this lake and there is no shortage of decent sized cousins still hanging around. Both girls managed to get several hookups and in an hour or so we were pretty well fished out and ready for a cold drink. I'm going to take a line or two here to reinstall that during the summer months I rarely if ever go fishing for trout in the Republican. And there are several reasons for this. Number one the grass is usually way too tall and thick along the river edge to be much fun for fly rodding. Number two is the insane amount of ticks, chiggers, and rattlesnakes you are sure to encounter. And Three is the warmth of the water and outside air temps. While the brown trout are here and thriving I know that the warmer the water is, the harder it is for the trout to breath, and the acids that build up in their blood while fighting an angler plus the oxygen deprived water will kill a lot of fish. Not worth it.
Back to the girls. On our second trip we used a friends small electric pontoon boat. We went all out and brought snacks, drinks a trolling rod and a fly rod. And we spent the entire morning scooting around the lake trolling a rattle bug lure behind us and casting poppers into lilly pads and weedlines. All total we caught 7 large mouthed bass and a few big sunfish. Natty even caught a sunfish that was then eaten by a very large bass right in front of her. Priceless! Taking kids fishing is one of the most rewarding a enjoyable parts of being a parent or grandparent. They ask all kinds of fun questions and have a refreshing insight to the world. They giggle when a beaver slaps its tail on the water. They marvel at the enormous dinosaur looking grass carp as they slowly skim the surface of the lake. And they are truly excited to catch a fish, any fish. They don't worry about size, or species. Their with Daddy and they are fishing. And he brought snacks and soda along. I love the magic in their eyes.