I'm a lousy dad

[Tkaldahl2000]

Tonight I managed to talk my 19 year old son into going to Koyamas Pond with me. I bought a kayak and we wanted to try it out, and since I bought him a fishing license to go with his deer tag, I convinced him to do a little fishing with me. To my horror, I had not taken him fishing enough for him to know how to properly set the hook. He finally managed to land a pretty nice small mouth with the last worm we had, but how could I have let him down so badly? I'm hoping I can pry him away from the computer long enough to get him to go explore Timberline Lake on Friday. We will try our hand at fly fishing for brookies if I can convince him to go with me. It also looks like we need a second kayak.

 

[WestT]

You're out there now...that's the important part! Make the best of what you have and good luck on Friday!

 

[Festus]

Never too late... always worth the effort

 

[Tkaldahl2000]

Well, I successfully convinced my son to go with me. Since I wasn't sure if we wanted to hike in and out in the same day we took camping gear with us. I'm afraid I might have broken my son. We got in without too much trouble, but stopped a lot to rest to be sure. We fished for a while, but I really didn't have a good selection of flies. I only had two dark colored nymphs, and that is what they seemed to want. It was my sons first time with a fly rod and he wasn't having any luck with the gold ribbed hares ear that I tied on his line. I started catching a bunch of brookies, so I had him come and take my rod so he could experience some of the action. As soon as he got the rod in hand the fish quit biting. He decided that he didn't want to stay over night, so we headed back out. When we got back to Gertrude lake, I had him change socks and put a band aid on the blister that was starting. by the time we got to the bottom he had the worst blister I have ever seen on the other foot. Next time I go I am taking the gps, cuz there is no way that it was only 5 miles in. I'll be staying overnight too. Does anyone have suggestions for good fly patterns for these alpine lakes?

My camera dided so I had to settle for these cell phone pictures.

 

[MidWesternHunter94]

Seems as though you're starting him off a little hard core. Not trying to tell you how to parent, you've been doing it longer than me. But I would start a little more simple, especially fly fishing, that takes a fair amount of skill. Get him to a place where he's spending most of the time casting because he's catching so many fish. That's what I've done with all of my nieces and newphews, and my daughter, and it got them hooked, and they were more accepting of "failure" (no such thing in my eyes lol), but most people who don't fish a lot see an empty stringer and feel like that was a day of failure. Once they fall in love with just being there, THEN you have them hooked.

 

[MidWesternHunter94]

And you're not a lousy dad! The fact that you have that feeling tells me you're not. I've had the same feeling.

 

[mountainhawks]

I agree with Midwesternhunter94, getting him out there is half the battle! A lousy father would be perfectly content allowing his kid to waste his days away on the phone or computer.