First Fish

On Friday we were in the Uintas Mountains for a scout hike. Joshua insisted that I let him bring a fishing pole even though I knew he wouldn't be catching any fish. There are a bunch of lakes out there and we hiked into the area of Cuberant Lakes. It was nice - perfect weather, no mosquitos and lots of m&m's and beef jerky. Good solid guy stuff.

Joshua pulled out the fishing pole and baited his hook with a hunk of cheese from his pack. Grandpa and I took turns demonstrating how to cast like a man. Then it was Josh's turn. After a 1/2 hour of no luck I asked him if he really thought a fish would go for soggy cheese. His response was, "Isn't pretty much everything a fish goes for soggy?" Good point.

We could see trout swimming near the shore line, but our bait options of cheese and fish eggs were not getting any action. Along the shore we noticed lots of short red bushes with little blue berries growing on them. Grandpa was trying to convince Joshua that they are edible, although - depending on how many you eat - you may want to have a roll of toilet paper handy.

Joshua started picking berries and threw one in the lake. Instantly a trout surfaced and gobbled the berry. Our eyes suddenly got big and we looked at each other. "Try that again!" Same result. So, we ditched the fish eggs and baited the hook with 4 wild blueberries.

The first cast with berry-bait and Joshua had a fish on the line. The first fish he had ever hooked. He reeled it in, laughing and hooting appropriately. Since this was his first fishing experience that actually involved a fish - Joshua wasn't sure how to handle the wet and wiggly thing. He was actually kind of a pansy and didn't want to touch it, but I guess that's alright.

The other scouts and leaders on the hike were all quite impressed when Joshua landed the first fish of the day. Some of them had been unsuccessfully fishing with fancy lures and looked a bit suspicious when Joshua showed them what his bait was.