Fishing on my own

[Shamus32]

Just thought I would pop in and say hi. I have always enjoyed fishing, but have been handicapped by the fact that I am uncomfortable touching fish. This has meant that I could only go out if I had someone with me who was able to take off any fish caught. Now with a 4 year-old son of my own, I want to be able to take him out for the experiences I had as a boy (I also want to maintain my "Daddy can do anything" image for as long as possible ). Last week I went out and purchased a pair of fishing gloves, and began practicing on small bass and sunfish by docks. I am happy to say I took more fish off the hook on my first day than I had in my previous 33 years of life. This morning I went for my first solo fishing outing. I got a bit of a shock going from taking off those little sunfish the day before, to having to remove a 26in pike today. Thankfully I was able to successfully remove it, and he is now back swimming in the river.

I also wanted to thank OldTimer for posting those contour maps of the various lakes last year. I live about 1 minute on foot from the edge of Mary Lake, and was having one heck of a time finding an underwater map of it.

Cheers