Sweet Success

You may remember a story from last fall about my big and little fishermen: both very eager, the latter really wanting to catch a fish, the former just wanting to see the worms dumped out into the lake. Well, a long winter stands between that day and yesterday...a winter in which Isaac has spent poring over Vance's fishing photo book, pointing out muskies and smallmouth and northerns, and talking incessantly about the day he will catch a "BIIIG smallmouth bass". He has been fishing in the sandbox in the backyard, fishing for baby Claire in the house, and asking constantly when the fish will wake up. Finally, Vance decreed it to be time. You can see that Isaac is armed with all the essentials: his "new" tackle box (heirloomed to him from V), a water bottle, his self-titled fishing had, and Sparky (for moral support, I suppose).

We were going to a park, or at least that's what it said on the map. Anticipating a playground and a photo-op, we girls tagged along. Turns out that the "park" was really just a marsh, and there wasn't even really a place to park. The water levels looked pretty low, and after trudging around in the underbrush, I began to get worried that we had gone through a lot of work for another repeat performance. Nonetheless, it was good father-son bonding time.

But joy! Look at that fine specimen on the hook there! And look at those faces! Which one is more excited, do you think? Hard to say, but Isaac was the only one I saw out there doing the happy dance.

Vance did all of the casting, all of the hooking, but Isaac got to reel in about 4 sunnies and pan fish. He was THRILLED. If you're not blinded by the joy in Isaac's face, you might notice Claire in the corner, getting filthy-dirty-wet and chunking rocks into the water. That's what she spent her time doing, and she had almost as much fun as Isaac, I think.