Fishing Report: Mother's Day Gift

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It's not chocolates or flowers, but maybe getting the boys out of their mothers' hair for awhile this afternoon was a gift of sorts. We sure had fun. The boys planned to swim first and fish later, but then they saw that the bluegills were in business. They haven't been anywhere to be seen before this, but today--there they were. They're hard to resist when they swirl around at your feet by the dozens. So the boys rigged up and tried unsuccessfully to catch some.

Our changeable Spring weather was much in evidence today, and some of the roving rain showers came close and spit a little rain in our direction.

That brought Jeremiah's friend Adrian and his Dad roaring in to the dock in their bass boat. They'd caught a few bass and were ready to call it a day. Jeremiah and Adrian quickly made plans for Adrian to stay with us for awhile.

The rain showers came even closer, and spattered us some more.

Maybe the boys figured they were already wet, so what the heck. So they jumped in.

Adrian wasn't sure what he'd gotten himself into, but eventually he jumped in, too. And then it cleared off and the sun came out. That warmed things up considerably, and the boys spent the next hour swimming and fishing. That gave me a chance to wander on up the shore and fish a little myself.  

That was fun. A blizzard hatch of tiny midges came off...

...and I watched the bluegill--there must be a million four-inch bluegill in this lake...

...and one bass, swim by.

And I fished, flipping and stripping little leech patterns. I missed the bass, and a carp that looked like it weighed ten pounds. But I caught a plethora of those bluegill, and a perch, and even a little crappie. Once upon a time this was a prime crappie lake, but it's rare now to catch one of any size.

Then I heard one of the boys say, "I can't feel my hands!" Soon they were calling me to come and take them home. We loaded up and started down the road. First they cranked the heater up full blast, then they cranked up the music ("We like the cars, the cars that go boom...") They're funny. I was hot and deaf.

We dropped Adrian off at his house, then cut through his grandpa's orchard back to the road. The pears are in bloom now, adding even more beauty to what had been a beautiful afternoon in every way.

OK, I realize it now, and I feel bad about it. Turns out we gave a Mother's Day gift to ourselves.