Fall Camping and Fishing

Fresh cool air, leaves changing colors, Fall; my favorite time to be outdoors. Our family recently returned from a weekend camping trip. We tried a new kind of roughing it. Normally we are with our regular camping buddies in the Appalachian Mountains or foothills near a trout stream with plenty of layers to keep warm on the cool nights. The sky is mostly obscured by tall trees filled with birds. Watching the creek, catching bugs and lizards, getting dirty, cooking and reading are the typical entertainment for the kids and me. I love it!

As I mentioned, this trip was different. Our camping companions were friends we never camped with before. They led us to some property on a lake that belonged to their family. It was plenty warmer, not so many trees, and the night sky was delightful. As for entertainment, there was some Boggle, and just hanging out. But by far fishing was the focus. The lake was new, and well stocked with young, stupid, easy to catch fish. Hubby said it was too easy to be fun after just a few minutes of casting and catching. I suppose a large part of the fun of fishing is the sitting still and waiting. My daughters, 7 and 9, were having the time of their lives. They kept their Daddy busy at first with baiting their hooks and releasing fish but he soon empowered them with an education and a barbless hook, and they were free.

They would catch crickets, use artificial baits, our hot dogs, even soften the dogs' food to put on a hook. Those fish seemed to bite anything. When she grew tired of this seemingly endless bait search, my youngest simply cast out an empty hook. (Now I am not a tall fish tale teller, so you can know this is true) She caught a fish on that hook! After that, she was not so fond of bait. She caught several fish on a sharp, shiny, looks nothing like fish food hook. I finally told her if we were going to pull the poor things from the lake, the least we could do was feed them something. I do enjoy fishing for dumb fish, but this took the bait! We will hopefully hit that fishing hole again next year when the precious little ignorant fish are even bigger and more fun to catch.

Now to plan a nice relaxing trip to the mountains...