I was messing with my reel while sitting in my boat on a shallow bay when I heard the unmistakable screams of excitement. “Daddy! I caught a fish and my pole is bending!”
My young son Kaden had been dangling a worm off the side of the boat so he could watch fish nibble at it and suddenly he had a big fish hanging off the end of his rod.
As it thrashed in the water the profile of the fish registerd in my brain “walleye” although there’s never been a known walleye in that little lake in northwest Montana.
As I helped him pull the fish up and into the boat the red fin gave it away first, then the black eye and with close inspection I could see the tell tale faded stripes of perch.
It’s the biggest perch I’ve seen in 25 years and I was nearly as amped up as Kaden. “Why are you so excited Daddy?”
“Because this fish is going to be delicious, that’s why!”