How to Land a 9-Month Old

Fishing for babies isn't all that easy. To land that elusive 20 pounder, you have to have just the right lures... and a lot of patience. Nine-month olds, especially, can be quite finicky, and they don't always hit the same lure twice. So be prepared. Do your homework. And have a good crankbait.

That's right: a crankbait!


Of course, the sheer variety of crankbaits is quite astronomical. Some dive shallow; some dive deep. Some have rattles; some don't. Some crankbaits have a lip; others do not. AND each type is available in about 5 gazillion different colors!


The crankbait we found most effective here was a bright green Bill Dance crankbait with a lip ... and rattles, of course! The sound alone was enough to make this baby strike - hard and fast!


Once the baby took the lure, the angler (AKA "daddy") quickly snapped the rod up and reeled the line in, keeping steady pressure on the baby. (This is an important step when fishing in heavy vegetation, or in this case, amongst a thick cover of toys.)




* NOTE: No babies were harmed in the making of this post. And the crankbait used to catch the 20-pound baby, pictured, had ALL hooks and sharp thingies removed and was thoroughly disinfected first!

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!

Fishful Thinking

Sean, J and I were lured outside by the nice weather yesterday, and we decided to try our luck in the lovely little lake that's less than a stone's throw away from our house. But despite our best efforts, our smart fishing tactics and even our undying hopefulness (and our top-notch fishing gear... check out the high-tech SpongeBob SquarePants pole and bobber!), no fish landed on our lines. Ok. So maybe ONE or possibly TWO fish tugged a bit, but both of them got away. So typical. At least we had a nice couple of hours before the mosquitoes came out and started their concentrated attack on me. (Why do they always go after me? No one else gets bugged by them as much as I!) Ah, well... better luck next time! One day I'll get to post about J and her first fish....