What would we do without wonderful memories from our childhood and past? With the upcoming Take a Mom Fishing Weekend from May 13-14, 2023 (all moms across Minnesota can fish for free without a license) brings back a lot of fond memories from my childhood. This year moms can participate in a Fishing Challenge on Facebook. Learn more about this statewide challenge HERE.
One of the memories was the many weekends spent at my grandparents cabin in northern Minnesota. A trip wasn’t complete until after many hours were spent fishing with my grandpa, dad, sister and brothers. We took this hobby seriously. We were taught at a very young age how to use a drop line. We would have a lure and a night crawler on the end of a spool of fish line. We would sit on the edge of the dock and drop our line. Grandpa taught us to jiggle the line a bit but not too much to tease the fish into coming after our worm and then that slight jerk when we felt a fish on the line to set the hook into his mouth. You would never want to let the fish play with the worm or you would have a fish that would swallow the line and that was a messier removal. He said the trick to catching fish was “holding your mouth correctly”. If you didn’t hold it correctly you were not going to catch fish. I remember studying my grandpa to learn the correct way to hold my mouth. I remember him catching me watching him and he too was watching all of us with a grin on his face. It wasn’t until years later that we learned that we had fell for one of grandpa’s funnies. Holding our mouths the right way had nothing to do with whether we caught fish or not but he got a kick out of us working hard to become as good of fisherman and women by holding our mouths correctly. He was watching us just as much as we were trying to learn from him because he loved that we fell for his little joke. I still have no idea how he didn’t burst out laughing at the obsession we all had to mimic him because he ALWAYS caught way more fish than we did. So, of course we were going to perfect that prerequisite as told by grandpa.
Once we graduated from the drop line we were on to the cane poles. I swear those things were 9 feet long but we really thought we were special because we were seasoned enough to actually have the honor in using a cane pole. I think grandpa and dad spent most of their time helpingus by untangling fish line, putting worms on hooks, taking fish off hooks, and watching us enjoy our time together. Our night ended when the sun went down because we needed time to hunt for night crawlers for fishing the following day. Grandpa would sprinkle the grass with water and quietly with flashlights we would patiently wait for the worms to come out of the ground. We always had more than enough by the time we were done. How I ever touched those slimy little worms is beyond me, but I did. I odn't know if we had more mosquito bites or worms but we sure had enough for the next day's fishing adventure.
We would also go out in his fishing boat if there was only a couple of kids. It was too hard to help everyone in such a small area and with a tippy boat. I remember a lot of the time watching the fish swim around in the live well or watching them flop on the deck of the boat as we were trying to cautiously pick up the fish the right way to not get stuck with fins. Grandpa was always very particular about the size of fish we could keep because we needed to let the smaller fish mature. I would have to say the worst part was cleaning the fish. I won’t go into that but we were each taught how to fillet a fish so there wasn’t bones when we ate them. Grandma was the best at making fried fish dipped in scrambled egg batter and dipping it in a crumbs mixture she had concocted.
After the fishing boat was too small for the number of us that went out, they had bought a pontoon boat. We eventually graduated to a rod and reel fishing pole and actually casting our fishing lines out to catch fish. I wasn't a fan of them at first because it took me some time to get the technique correct and I would get the line all messed up inside the reel when I casted. I eventually perfected my technique and got my own rod and reel to bring along on our fishing adventures. I remember one time in the pontoon boat, we got situated in a great place on the lake where crappies and bass were plentiful. I remember my mom, dad, my sisters and my brothers were in the boat. Apparently we hadn’t picked such a great fishing spot because we were being dive bombed by some big birds. I don’t remember what kind they were but my dad told us to take cover go underneath the chairs as he was trying to swat them off and move the pontoon to safer water! Another fish tale to tell grandpa when we got in off the lake. I remember the laughter as we told of our experience on the lake. My grandparents are no longer alive but I can recall SO many fun and fond memories with them. Family is and always has been and always will be where the meaningful memories come from.
Lastly, I’ll tell you about the fly fishing story. We grew up on Lake Owasso in Shoreview and so we would fish there too. The first time I was introduced to fly fishing was when I quietly was going to sneak up on my brother who was fishing on the dock. Right as I was sneaking up on him he casted his pole backward as you do when fly fishing but yanked especially hard because the hook landed in my skull in the back of my head. I was screaming in pain, je turned around to me with a look of dread! My dad had heard me and came running to my rescue. Needless to say I know how it feels to get the barbs of a hook dug out of my head and learned to NEVER sneak up on anyone that was fishing. I would NEVER again go on a dock or anywhere near someone fishing.
The memories are plentiful and I still have family members that fish regularly and probably have way more wonderful fishing memories than I but life is a wonderful thing. We need to enjoy the moments because one day they will be the memories we have deep in our hearts and can share with our own kids.
I hope that you can enjoy time with your family fishing as much as our family has. Give it a try May 13-14, 2023 to create your own family memories.
Here's a fun song that pretty much describes the memories that are made while fishing. I am sure every fisherman/fisherwoman can come up with great family memories.
