On father's day I decided to go fishing. My wife suggested that I take my 9 year old Daughter and 12 year old Niece. Knowing that if I took them, this would be their first fishing trip and I would get little or no fishing time for myself. Well... I couldn’t say no and we headed off to the Santa Anna River off of hwy 38 on the back side of Big Bear. This is little more than a stream, about 6-8 feet across in most places and stocked every other week by DFG.

We got there about 8am and I gave the girls a quick lesson on stinging nettle, rattle snakes, and bears. Then a crash course in stream fishing. Luck was on our side and the bite was relatively good. They each managed their own rod, all I did was bait the hooks. To my surprise, they picked up the techniques quickly and were getting bites and farming fish within the first 20 minutes. After losing countless fish and more tangles than one man can handle, they each landed their first fish and were ecstatic! I created two more fisher-women for life. Before I knew it, we had been fishing for 4 hours and I hadn't even picked up my own rod. I gave a shot at it and landed a small one in about 10 minutes. The girls proceeded to slide down a loose hillside and both fell into the stream face first. Nobody was hurt and I couldn't stop laughing. That is what childhood memories are made of! It wasn't that long ago (or was it) when I fell into Bishop Creek at age 6. This was the perfect time to call my fishing trip with the girls a success and head down the mountain.

My point is, get those kids out there to fish. You may not get much fishing time in yourself the first couple trips, but you will have a great time anyway. Before you know it, they aren't kids anymore and they will be taking you to fish.


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