Father and Daughter fishing trip, Part II

I woke up at 7:00am and quietly snuck out to get dressed for a morning on the seawall. My daughter woke up and came out and asked me why I was getting dressed, and I told her that I was going fishing.

Naturally, she wanted to come, but I told her that daddy was going by himself. Oh, man the tears came hot and fast and she said, "But daddy, I'll bring my own fishing pole!"

I felt pretty guilty, but left without her. As penance, I didn't catch anything all morning, and to add insult to injury, I lost one of my big Yo-zuri's. (I did get one nice look at a snook, but he didn't take the lure.)

After feeling guilty all day, I asked Reilly this evening if she wanted to go fishing with me. She said yes and was really excited. On the drive over, I asked her if she thought we were going to catch any fish. "Yes," she said, "lots, daddy!"

I chose a spot on the western seawall over in the Vinoy Basin. I had about a dozen frozen shrimp along, and I set up her rod with a small split shot and a tiny hook I use for tying trout flies. After slipping on a little piece of shrimp, I cast out her rod. A few seconds later, she reeled up a small fish. I haven't the slightest idea what kind of fish it was. It looked like a cross between a sculpin and a scorpion fish. Choosing caution, I used my pliers to set it free, and tossed it back in. Reilly was excitedly running all around me the whole time.

On the next cast, she reeled up a little tiny puffer fish. More squeals of excitement.

The bite slowed down a bit after that, and I took a moment to bait up my rod with a full shrimp and cast it about twenty yards out. Reilly took quite an interest in my rod, and wanted to reel it in every time I cast it out. After awhile, I set it up on my tackle box next to her rod so that I could explain to her how to watch for a bite. At that moment, her rod bent double and she reeled up a pinfish as big as my hand. In fact, it was so big that Reilly's little reel couldn't even turn, so I had to hoist it out of the water by hand. A small crowd had gathered, so we dutifully showed off the fish, Reilly gave it a pat, and we tossed it back in.

As I went to re-bait her hook, Reilly excitedly told me I had a bite. I turned around to look at the rod, saw nothing, and told her that there was no bite. I continued to bait her hook, and she insisted there was a fish on the line, so I called over my shoulder to go ahead and reel it in.

When I looked back, she had my seven foot rod in the air, the rod tip bent, and was reeling in a fish. I watched her fight it until she totally ran out of gas, and I took over to find a 15 inch stingray on the line. Reilly was running around me yelling, "A stingray! Look everyone, a stingray!" I had her stand back a safe distance, flipped the stingray on its back to get the hook out, then grabbed the stringray by the tail with my pliers and tossed it back in.

Reilly would follow up this catch with another big pinfish, and by then, it was dark and it was time to head home and wash off the shrimp.

I can't tell you how fun it was to fish with her today. She even helped me pull off the heads and tails of the shrimp to bait her hook. The kid is a natural. Next time I just have to remember to bring my camera!