FISHING

On my first morning in Vermont I drove into town and purchased an out of state fishing license. Then, using borrowed rods (Thank you, Ms. Jansen!), we got down to fishing. When we first got married Sarah and I used to go fishing a lot, and I remember catching lots of Northern Pike and Bass down at the shore. I assured the kids that not only would we catch some fish, but we might even catch some big fish. "Who knows?" I added, "We might even catch the Champlain Monster."

For the most part we only caught yellow perch though, which are on the smallish side, but still good eating and easy to clean. Bowden became especially good at it and may have caught more perch than me over the course of the vacation. Lucy also shows promise as a fisherwoman. One morning Bowden and I woke up early and headed down to the lake. After starting a small fire on the beach we started fishing. As he caught the perch I cleaned them, spitted them on a stick, and put them over the fire to cook. Bowden loved it, and I felt like Bear Grylls!

The quest for a big fish took us up to where the mouth of Munger Brook flows out into the lake. It was early in the morning and Lucy was so cold that I gave her my sweater. Bowden wisely remained in his footy jams. I let the boat drift and cast a minnow lure close to some bushes that grew out into the water and BAM! on the first cast a big bass hit it. I fought it in toward the boat and succeeded in pulling it up out of the water so that the kids could see it, but before I could grab its mouth the line broke and the bass fell back into the lake with a splash. Bummer! At least the kids got to see it, and I could see in Bowden's eyes that the experience had left him hooked as well. It was a really good sized bass, and I was bummed it got away, but from then on every cast held the possibility for Bowden of hooking something big.

Sadly, the big fish continued to elude us. The yellow perch were super abundant however, which is good because they are actually really delicious. Bowden, Lucy and Jack all caught plenty enough perch to make us feel successful.

The next time we come, however, I'm gonna come prepared to catch some real monsters. I'll be back!