- By Rich Miller
Deer season opened last week and – it being opening day – I just had to go. With the temperatures in the mid-90’s, I really didn’t want to be there after I was up in the tree. It has been so hot and dry here most of the buck pictures I have been getting the last couple of weeks have been at night anyway. I ended up staying in the tree until dark and never saw a thing. On the way in that evening, I decided I wasn’t getting back in the tree until we got some rain or a weather change.
Every Thursday afternoon this summer my dad and I fished a bass tournament, and when we pulled out of the driveway my little boy wanted to go with us every week. He didn’t mention much about it until we were headed out for the tournament. My dad and I talked about taking him one afternoon after the tournament trail ended. So after my scorching opening day hunt, I decided it was time to take Tye out and do a little bass fishing. After I got off work that afternoon, I went straight to my parent’s house to meet up with them and Tye as standing in the driveway with his fishing rod and life jacket ready to go. The funny thing was my dad and Tye were both running around like a couple of three-year-olds they were so excited!
I think Tye enjoyed the ride in the boat about as much as anything because it was all I could do to keep him is his seat on the ride in. It started off a little slow while we got a routine, with Tye slinging his rod all over the place. After I got him settled down it wasn’t long before my dad had a nice bass on his line. He wanted Tye to help him reel it in, but the bass made one last jump and came off. They were both a little down after that but it wasn’t long before I had one on my line and had Tye helping me get it in. He was all about the fish after my dad netted it and held it up; so I got them together and snapped a picture before we released him. Not long after that my dad caught another one and Tye helped him out, too. I don’t think we had to help him as much as he did after we got them on the line, but I was afraid he was going to let the rod go if we didn’t. I caught a couple more and had another good fish that he helped me bring in. He was really having a ball catching all the fish and he must have made about twenty laps around the boat because he couldn’t be still. The only thing he couldn’t figure out was why we didn’t catch a fish every cast. We fished until it was almost dark and I thought Tye might go to sleep in the boat before we got back to the ramp – but boy was I wrong! He was wide-awake, running his mouth the whole ride back.
We did catch a lot of fish for the little while we were there, but the best part was watching him and my dad telling my Mom about all the fish they caught. Every day for a week after our fishing trip, when my mom picked him up from school, he would ask her if Paw Paw had the boat hooked up.
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