STA-SEA’S NATURE COAST ADVENTURES
This is such a grand time of year. Time to make memories with your children or grandchildren; memories they will hold near and dear long after you are gone. The long hot days of summer are some of my best memories as a child growing up in Florida. I remember the days of frolicking in the sprinklers, playing hide-and-go-seek, grabbing grandma’s mason jars and catching fireflies, filling my pockets with bullfrogs, just to torture my sister, and of course, fishing off the bank of the creek where my granddaddy lived.
He’d spit on some bread balls, roll them onto a tiny hook, and hand me the cane pole. I was a very rambunctious little tomboy, so that would only keep my attention for a minute, but I surely do remember the few times I’d actually catch a little bream. Granddaddy would be grinning ear to ear, as I tried with all I had to work up the courage to hold that slimy wigglin’ fish. He’d throw his head back and just laugh!
If I had known then what I know now, I would have listened intently to every deep southern tale or the words of wisdom he always so graciously bestowed upon me. I’m sure if you would have told him I was gonna become a fishing guide, he would have doubled over with laughter. I have no doubt he’s in heaven now busting the buttons off of his shirt, seeing his granddaughter fishing for a living!
As bored as the children may seem, don’t stop thrusting your wisdom at them. Trust me when I tell you, they are listening about half the time. That half will stay with them until their dying days. So, keep telling your wildly over exaggerated tales of your childhood. Tell them how you walked to school eight miles each way in this sweltering heat, with no shoes on your feet, or tell them about the time you fought that grizzly bear with your bear hands, or even that monster fish who got away with your rod and reel because he was so enormous. The one that, had you landed it, definitely would have been a world record! Let the traditions live on.
Here’s a couple things my parents and grandparents did that were, I’m sure, nothing short of pure entertainment! Give the kids a salt shaker and tell them to sprinkle it on a bird’s tail, it prevents them from flying and you can catch them. I ran around shaking salt at birds for years! Or, how about sending your teenager to the store for muffler bearings? Blinker fluid? Yep I fell for that one too.
Take the kids outside this summer and make some new traditions. Buy them a big wheel or a football or better yet, a fishing pole. Kids need nature, bug bites, dirt, mud, water, scrapes, and bruises. It puts the child in childhood.
Captain Stacy Horak
Cell 352-553-3604
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fishingwithcaptainstacy.com