I spent the afternoon with my nearly 5 y.o. son fishing off a public dock in the Bainbridge/Bremerton area. When I fish with him and see his determination, his desire and his passion to catch more fish and bigger fish, it makes me realize that there is really no difference between a 5 year old and a 50 year old fisherman. I just love seeing him experience the feelings of anticipation, excitement, delight and frustration that the pursuit of a fish elicits.

The Shiner perch were thick (schools of hundreds) under the dock. They are eager biters, but hard to catch because their mouths are so small - they tend just to eat the bait off the hook, but being able to watch them do it elevates this to a world-class fishery for a preschooler. Using a piece of shrimp or clam on a single, small hook, we caught and released many Shiners over a 4 hour period. Also caught were sculpins. We saw cutthroats under the dock, a couple of them sufficiently large to accelerate the pulse. A few weeks ago, we saw larger Pile perch below the Shiners, but those seem to have moved on.

After getting my son back into his mother's arms, it was time for me to hit a beach I had scoped out last week for some big boy fishing. In the one hour before sunset, I caught a small chum salmon, a nice SRC and this other fish, which I think was a coho (see picture). Missed several more strikes. The seagrass was a pain in the butt, requiring my spoon to be cleared after nearly every cast, but I thought this was some pretty good beach action. I've got SRC's on the brain - can't wait to have a big one at the end of my 5-wt fly line.

---