Oyster Bay with Danielle - 6th May 2012

Earlier this month Lachlan was staying at a friends place for the night so I took the opportunity to smuggle Danielle onto the kayak seeing as it's been awhile since she's been out with me. She was so excited, the night before she was saying, 'Early to bed, Daddy. We're going fishing in the morning!'.

And thankfully it wasn't too cold either. We had the ramp to ourselves and conditions were excellent. We started trolling a Chubby and a Babyvib while we watched the mullet jumping sporadically around the bay. Last time she managed a good flathead, so our goal today was to catch her her first bream.

Things were surprisingly quiet and we even had a short stint at flicking a surface lure under overhanging trees. I was hoping for a big surface smash but alas, no luck there. Finally though, the rod bucked and with a 'Ooh' and wide eyes, she was on!

This wasn't a big fish but she loved it just the same. I repeated the words I'd mentioned to Lachlan when he was learning. "Rod up, a little more, no, not that much, point it towards the fish, keep winding. Well done, that's it...'. And yes, it was a bream. Not legal but who cares when you're just out having fun. We had a quick photo and she dropped the little guy back into the water for another time.

We continued around the bay, eating a few chocolate biscuits, talking about fish and ballet and let's not tell Lachlan and 'Ooh, are there sharks in here? What about crocodiles?' Our laughter was interrupted by the singing of the drag as a better fish raced off with the Chubby.

Lots of funny faces were pulled as Danielle struggled to wind this 'huge' fish in. I saw the silver flash and this bream was soon in the net, too. Yay! This one was legal (about 27 tip length) but we weren't out for a feed today, so this guy won his freedom, too.

The time literally flew by and before we knew it we had to head back in. There was still time for another first for Danielle though, and although the drag didn't sing or the rod bend too much, she landed her first tailor. 'See ya fishy!' we yelled as he shot off into the depths and we continued back to the ramp.

Another fantastic day and I love being able to share these experiences and teach my children a wonderful pastime that hopefully they'll treasure as much as I do. Our time is all too brief on this planet so you've gotta squeeze every last drop out of it while you can. These memories will last a lifetime for me and I'm pretty sure Lachlan and Danielle will cherish these times too. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid