White Lake Redemption
Back to White Lake we go. After Saturdays subpar performance in HOTD we were back for our Case of the Mondays Division. This was going to be fun regardless, for one there is no pressure on Mondays and two Mabel was going to join us for the event. She’s caught a bunch of fish but this was going to be a little different. However it would be a good introduction to “bass fishing”. This wasn’t going to be snatching smallies off beds on Grand Traverse Bay easy.
We brought dinner and coloring books. We were going to start on some spinning rod stuff to get some fish and give her an opportunity to net some and reel some in. Both things she’s really capable of and it wasn’t long and we had a limit in the boat. She also got to see her first northern pike which is something her and her sister talk about from time to time. I remember being a kid and being interested in the mythical northern pike also.
We eventually transitioned to fishing some nastier stuff and put a couple good ones in the boat. It was pretty cool for me to have us get a couple fish worth high fiving for. It was just a little taste of tournament excitement even though she really didn’t know what was going on. We landed 2 of our 4 quality bites and ended up with a bag in the mid 15 pound range. Probably the coolest thing for me was at one point when Mabel picked up a rod and started chucking a senko around. She was doing great casting and catching some grass bass. I so wanted one of those grass bass to turn into a real one but it was a huge step in the right direction. We ended up finishing 2nd by a half a pound and missing big bass by .02! All I really wanted was to give her a 20 dollar bill at the end of the night and have a good time. Mission accomplished and since she’s already been asking about next Monday and talking about her bass thumb I think it was a success. She’s also planning on buying something “really big and really cool” with that 20 dollar bill.
I’ve got to give a big shout out to Trevor for putting up with us (and also WMB for allowing kids under 12 in the boat with you). Because it was a little slower pace than we are used to and I volunteered us to be gun boat. It is going to be tough to make these a regular occurrence just because it ends up being such a late night for a 6 year old. It couldn’t have gone much better for a first experience in tournament fishing.