Now, O is "O-fish-ial"

Yes ladies and gentlemen. Shortly after his 4th birthday, Owen Frederick Ainslie was officially (or should it be "O-fish-ially"?) re-classified as something more than a mere boy. He is now a fisherman!

For quite some time now, Owen has had a small, orange, Diego fishing rod that I bought for him. While we were at the Shakopee house, we worked on his casting skills by tossing the line (weighed down with a plastic fish) down the stairs. Fun, but not fun enough to keep him interested long. As those who know me may expect, I have really wanted to take O fishing for a year or so now. That said, I have tried very hard not to put too much pressure on him about it. He knows I love it and that he had a standing invitation to come with anytime he wanted but I didn't want him to feel compelled to take part if it just didn't excite him. I wanted the initial impetus to come from him (hoping it would mean more to him that way).

That's why I was very pleased when over the last weeks, he started getting verbal about being excited about going. He was psyched to learn that all he had to do was catch one fish and he could then officially label himself a fisherman.Once we cleared up some general misconceptions he had about how it would work such as not needing to go in the canoe like I usually do ("So we can just fish from shore, Dad? That's cool!") or that we would have to be out for hours like I usually am ("It will just be me fishing and we can leave when I'm ready, Dad? OK!") he was ready to go. Like now. Let's go.

So, on the morning of July 20, O and I went out in the morning to one of the many local lakes, chose an observation deck, and put a worm and bobber in the water. In the 45 minutes we were there, he caught 4 fish - 1 of which was a "monster" blue gill as big as any I have ever caught ("4 fish is all I need, Dad. 4 fish for a 4-year old."). Of course, he also spent about 10 or 15 minutes sitting on a bench gobbling up two granola bars and a fruit squeezer and chatting me up about his views on life, so 4 fish in 30 minutes of actual fishing is a more accurate summary of our outing.

Needless to say, I was very proud of my boy and was extremely happy to have been able to share this first time experience with him. I can honestly say that it was a morning that I will hold close in my memory always. Hopefully, we do it again soon.


You can see from his pic on the top left just how excited he was to "finally" be included in the ranks of "true" fishermen! The other 2 pics are both of his first fish - tried to get a better "broadside" but the bugger was spinning too much on the line.