It wasn’t so long ago when I would take Ryder out on the boat for a perch trip. In about a half hour we would get the anchor set, rods in the water and perch coming in one right after the other, or what fisherman call “up and down.” As we’d just start to add up some perch Ryder would look up to me and say, “OK, Momo I’m ready.” I’d say, “Ready for what Ryder?” “I’m ready for McDonald’s and the pool.” Not wanting to have him hate fishing by keeping him out there too long, I’d pull the anchor and we would go to McDonald’s and then our pool. This is why I tell people not to start bringing kids out too early on a charter because its a costly lesson to learn.
Well, Ryder is 10 now and is all hands on deck. Now he can’t get enough netting, setting lines and looking in the livewell over and over again to see it filling up with fish. We ventured out this past Sunday and invited my friend Mark to go with us. In a few hours, we caught our boat limit of 24 walleye and a monster channel catfish that Ryder nicknamed “sharknado” before releasing him back into the water. Better to be patient and lucky than good .