Jaiden's First Fish (Or.... The Fish That Wasn't Really THAT Big!)

Sean, Jaiden and I went to Oak Mountain Lake for a few hours on Sunday afternoon to get in a little fishing! We were planning to just head across the street to our neighborhood lake, but the new boat ramp wasn't quite ready yet. So, we got all the gear loaded up and headed out to the park.

Jaiden has been fishing several times, but -- until this day -- she had never caught a fish. Of course, none of us has really had luck on our past fishing trips. But with some real worms as bait this time, Jaiden hooked and reeled in feisty, little bluegill. Excited, I got out my iPhone and snapped a few pictures of J with her first catch!


Of course, in the above photo, J's little bluegill looks enormous! And it would make for quite the fish story, should I just leave it at that. But bluegills just don't get that big. Especially not in over-fished lakes like the ones at Oak Mountain! If she'd really hooked a fish like this, it would need to go in the record books!

But I can't go on with the charade (or with the sneaky photo taking, if you want to look at it that way!). So, I must confess... in the above photo, I was holding Jaiden's fishing rod. So that little fish was MUCH closer to me (and to the camera) than it was to her.

I'm sure I had you fooled for a second. Right? Hey -- I had Sean and ME fooled, and we were there!

So, here is the "real" photo for comparison... and for clearing my conscience! (Ha-ha!)


It sure was a little squirt, but it was Jaiden's first catch, nonetheless. And hopefully that little bluegill can grow up for some other day, some other cast and, perhaps, some other catch!