Today’s Fishing Friday is a guest post from Melissa at Adventures with Captain Destructo! Thanks for sharing, Melissa!
My dad always told me that the secret to building a strong relationship with your children is to find some common interests with them.  For me and my dad, this was two things:  fishing and horse racing (which is another blog post all together.)  He first started taking me fishing when I was just young.
When I was around five, I won a fishing derby that he entered me in.  I remember I was wearing a jean jacket since it was cool that day.  I was probably 6 since this was in the spring of 1989.  I had fished for hours without so much as a bite.  Right before the time was up, I caught a small mouth bass.  It was a puny little thing, but I was so happy that I had at least caught a fish during a fishing derby.
Well they were giving out the awards and we were getting ready to leave since obviously with my one tiny fish, I wasn’t going to win the fishing derby.  Lo and behold right before we left they called my name.  What my dad didn’t realize is that there was also an award for largest, smallest, etc fish. I won in my age division for smallest fish caught!
 

The trophy was at least three times the size of the fish I caught

Another fun fishing memory that my dad and I still talk about to this day was the time I told him I had a big fish on my line.  We were fishing up in northern Michigan and the lake we were at had tons of seaweed that we kept getting snagged on.  He was sure that I had just gotten snagged.  I started reeling it in and got to the point that I couldn’t reel anymore.  Then my dad notices my line going back and forth all over the place.  He helped me get it in and it was a huge large mouth bass. If I learned nothing else from my father (and I learned a lot don’t get me wrong) it was to bait my own hook and take my own fish off.  He didn’t have time to let me be a girly girl when we were out fishing.
My husband is also a big fisher and hopefully our son will grow up fishing as well.  I look forward to when he is big enough to take fishing.  It will be good family time and bonding time with the little man. Plus what is better than a day out on the lake/river/pond with the sun on your face and a cool breeze in your hair?