First cast for me was about 8:30AM. I needed to prefish a bit bc I was going to have family join in a few hrs. Didnt take long to land 3 small SMB within 15 mins. About a pound each I estimate. Moved around and was able to repeat finding fish at a few areas. Family is inexperienced, so I was looking for easy holes that didnt require accurate casts and low weeds to deal with. A couple of hrs in, got the message they were ready. In the meantime, I landed about 10 SMB. A total of three that were around the 2# range with largest at 2.68#. Rest were 1#ish and a couple were very small. The most productive was the dropshot.

Uncle said he hasnt fished in 35 years. 8 year old cousin has never fished before. Tied on a dropshot for all. Gave a quick lesson on how to use a spinning reel and we started pounding a point I found some fish on early on. I quickly land a 1#er. U&C are getting nibbles from perch, but not sticking. Then U gets a fish on! Landed himself a nice 1#er too. I get another fish on, but I hand it off to C just in case, so he could reel in a fish. Success, everybody lands a SMB at this point. To my surprise, C gets a bite and he reels in another SMB . U gets 1 mroe himself. Biggest was maybe 1.5#, but everybody was excited.

Moved to another point and U gets 2 more while C gets a perch and another SMB.

Tested out Farthole for a bit without a single nibble. Man that hole is dead. I took them farther north and we hit a little cove with a dropoff. I got a nice looking bluegill out of there.

Start heading south and stop off at a deep point. I put on a wacky worm on C's dropshot. He was just casting around and dragging. I hear drag being pulled and turn around and see him struggling with the rod. At first glance, I thought maybe it was snagged. I told him to hold it in place and see if it moves by it self. I couldnt tell from the bow, so I went back to assist. I grabbed the rod and felt the headshakes. Handed it back to him and told him to hang on. This fish is staying down and ripping drag. I catch color and see it's a pretty nice SMB. It's hooked on the outside of the face plate. It rips more drag and the little guy is struggling to support the rod. I instruct him to hold the rod in place upwards and just let the fish do it's thing. Fish starts to tire out. As I'm turning to grab the net, I realize C is still reeling it in even though the fish is at boat side. Before I could even open my mouth to tell him to stop reeling, the fish is dangling and pops right off. Looked like a mid to high 2#er. Told him still counts with our 1-rod length rule. Everybody was able to get a good look at it, just wasnt able to land the pic for him.

So plenty of fish to go around. Lots of excitement. Great memories for family. Hook them young.

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