A Young Girl’s First Fish

Kids, fun and floating the Lower Bow River

I awoke on Sunday to the sweet sounds of spring robins chirping out my window. Nothing quite beats the sounds of robins in the spring time. With new young in the nest now, I see the mother gathering worms from the freshly watered lawn out the back common area of my condo. I think it’s safe to say winter has disappeared now and the effervescent colors of spring have sprung.  The only other thing that beats those resonances of robins chirping on a Sunday morning is the sound of excited children’s merriment upon awakening, knowing that they will be going on a boat ride later that afternoon.  My daughter Paige had a sleep over this past Saturday night and we had plans to take the boat out for a short two hour trip with her new friend Delena. The girls had a hard time slumbering on Saturday night as they were both pumped for the next day’s adventure! Paige has floated with me on multiple occasions, but this was Delena’s maiden voyage and she was extremely excited to say the least. I think I finally heard the giggling of the girls stop at about midnight.

We all awoke at around 9:30 AM Sunday, and I started a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs and maple sausages. The girls ended up having cereal and I had to eat most of the prepared meal myself. I remember what it was like to love cereal as a kid for breakfast. I loved cereal! I also loved rising early in the morning to my grandpa waking me up to go fishing. Grandpa and I had to pick those worms from the garden out back just like the robins I saw slurping the worms from my common area. That was a long time ago, and we can’t use worms any longer on the Bow River. The point is, to a child it is exhilarating to do something new, something that may result in a fish on the end of a fishing lure, the hope that they will catch even just one fish!

We started our float way down at Legacy Island. This float is only a few hours, which is the perfect distance for two young girls. Any longer out on the water gets kind of boring if the fishing is slow. This time of the year, the rainbows have gone to spawn, leaving the river open for the resident brown trout to wreak havoc on a lure. I set the girls up with the trusty Panther Martin spinner and used the bottom bouncing method all day. I made a few casts myself with the BX minnow from Rapala, but I wanted the girls to catch a few rather than get even one myself.

The river is clean of weeds now, so the spinners bounced down there nicely, and snag free all day.  It was about half way into our trip Delena’s rod started bouncing up and down violently as the fish was fighting to get free of the hooks embedded in his lips. Delena became extremely excited as she slowly reeled in the fish. I guided her to keep the rod tip up high and reel the fish in slowly but surely. Delena did an awesome job getting the sweet little rainbow trout to my awaiting EGO S2 slider net that was outstretched and ready for her first ever fish. She was extremely excited that she caught her first fish ever, and we all were ecstatic for her as well. It is such a thrill for me to see a child catch their first ever fish, and it is my hope that it will not be Delena’s last.

The season is just starting up so there are many days left to make more memories for the kids out fishing the rivers and lakes of Alberta. The fishing was quite slow that day we took the kids out; even I could not catch one! Delena rubbed in the fact that I never caught anything and she did. The things kids say to amuse me. I even pretended to cry that I never caught one fish and she did. Both girls were laughing at me in the back seat on the ride back from the Carseland Weir. I am very grateful that we had a great day out on the Bow River with the kids. I still have fond memories of my grandfather taking me fishing as a child. Those memories will always last a lifetime for me, and I sure hope that memory lasts forever for Delena. It’s time to leave the Bow River alone now and switch to the lakes of southern Alberta for some mammoth Walleye. I am planning a two day trip on the May long weekend. Let’s hope the weather is nice and I am able to take the kids with me to experience the Walleye action next weekend. After all, that’s what memories are made of right?