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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
Fishing Transcends Age and Gender
By Mike Guarino One of the joys of my job is getting to meet so many different people from all walks of life who share one common interest — fishing. It's so much fun to help people catch some of the beautiful fish that swim in our lakes, but a true highlight is when little kids are involved. Of course when youngsters are in the boat everything changes. You have to be more tolerant if things go wrong (like tangles and getting hung up). You need to be wicked careful around them too, keeping a watchful eye on the kids at all times. It only takes a split second for someone to get a hook in their finger (or worse your finger)! Plus kids like action and lots of it. They need to be kept busy or they can get bored quickly. Sometimes it's not the size of the fish, but the quantity that really counts. One of the photos with this article is of 10-year old Noah Stein. Noah's grandfather Barry Seigel brought him to Maine for his birthday trip. Turns out, young Noah is a heck of a fishermen! During his trip he caught largemouth bass, smallmouth, pickerel, northern pike, white perch, yellow perch, sunfish and the single biggest chub I have ever seen in Belgrade — all on the same day. Well done, Noah. I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again in the future. Now on the other end of the fishing spectrum is when the grandparents are fishing. The older generation is also a blast to fish with because more often than not, they are interested in learning about the lakes, the tackle and different techniques.
Well, this week I received the nicest letter from Ruth Tashjian who, along with her husband Dave recently moved to Long Pond. Ruth's mom, Edith Hathaway stays with them and last year was her first time ever fishing, and now she's hooked! As Edith said, "You're never too old to learn how to do something new." Well, it's in that same spirit that on July 17, Edith caught the fish shown in the other photo. Good for you Edith and good luck the rest of this year. Speaking of kids, I just have to share this story with you — it's a beauty! Last week there was a 14-year old boy in the boat fishing with his grandfather. He'd just received an expensive birthday present — his first bait caster combination! He was psyched, until on his fifth cast he accidentally chucked the whole thing overboard. Chaos and bedlam quickly took hold and at 6:00 a.m. I found myself jumping out of a perfectly good boat into a pretty gross milfoil bed. What a wake up call! The story gets even worse though. The rod sank so fast that I could not find it despite diving down to the bottom a number of times. I was pretty surprised that I could not find the rod, but when I came back up to the surface to catch my breath I spotted a big old snappin' turtle about five feet to my left. That turtle must have been laughing his shell off, watching me try to scamper up the side of my boat. I was surprised at how fast I managed to get back in though, especially that early in the morning. Morals of the story:
Mike Guarino can be contacted at | ||
