By: Chasten Whitfield
I was recently contacted by a couple young kids who have requested that I go fishing with them, so I got to thinking about it. After talking with them and thinking you don’t see this very often, kids running around outside riding their bikes from Ponta Pine with their fishing pole in hand, off to any location where they believe they will catch fish. As we all know, most kids today are inside playing video games on their phones or other gaming machines, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to add some encouragement to the next generation angler. After a long discussion with his parents, I met up with Daniel so he could take me to his fishing holes and I brought my brother along with me, who had never caught a bass. We made our plans and started out the next morning very early and got to a pond around 7:30am. Daniel is 15 years old and said that he has fished this pond before, but doesn’t like to fish it a lot because he doesn’t like to pressure the fish. I think that is amazing, very smart, and a mature thought because fish in ponds do get pressured a lot because they can’t go anywhere else; they’re stuck in the same little body of water for everyone to chase. As we were discussing how we’re going to fish this pond, we all decide which lure to use. I decided to throw a top water plug, while Daniel is throwing a swim bait, and my brother Caden is throwing a shaky head. On my first cast, I hooked up on a good 2 ½, maybe 3-pound fish. It hit my top water twitches, however, I could see an alligator come up out of nowhere and start heading towards me. I reeled my line in as fast as I could to get out of there. As soon as my fish was up and out of the water and I was departing, my brother Caden was hooked up on a fish on his shaky head, so we decided to move down the bank in hopes the gator would go the other way – which he did. Daniel was throwing his swim bait and also caught a pretty nice fish. As the sun came up, the water temperature changed and the bite completely turned off, however, it was an awesome morning as we discussed conservation and Captains For Clean Water, which I believe that 15-year-old kids who love to fish should know about because they will be the voice of the next generation!
It’s All About the Kids! @Chastenation
