When I was looking though the hard drives the other day I came upon a folder called mixed fishing. I looked inside and it was just that, a mix of old fishing images. The one above says it all. I was about 10-12 years old living in Millstone before people knew where Millstone was. I went to school in Freehold so I didn't grow up with kids I went to school with in my neighborhood. I grew up in the outdoors, BMXing, motorcycling, and of course fishing. This bridge was about 100 feet from my house and the water came from irrigation ponds from the ponds around my house. It was a honey hole as there was always a sunny or a small bass willing to eat.
Of course back then it was, in the first pic, a fishing pole made from a stick, then a Zebco, like I am holding with my father at Turkey Swamp Park in the 1970's above. When I was lucky enough to have kids the first two out were boys. I likened them to Paul and Norman from A River Runs Through It. I exposed them to fishing, fly fishing probably too early, but they caught and caught, and then they stopped fishing and catching. I started them early and often from Florida (below) to the West Branch
of the Ausable (above) where Ryan caught that brown all by himself on a hiddeous Wolly Bugger I had tied myself. We were camping below Whiteface Mountain near Lake Placid when he caught that.
One of the things I loved the mostly about them and fishing, they loved to do it together, above fly fishing on the Lehigh River in the Poconos . Just two years apart, it was close enough for them to be different but share a common interest, like fishing. They were buds when it came to fishing, and they learned quick and enjoyed it, but it didn't stick.
I am not sure why. With Ryan gone I won't ever to be able to fish with those two again, and that kind of bums me out. Hopefully I can get Sean out there again as he really enjoyed it. But, honestly, who knows if that would have ever become a thing for the three of us. I'm not sure they would be as into it as I am, and that would be fine. I have a father and brother who both like to fish, about once every three years, and not neccesarily with me. Now that I think I don't know if I ever had both of them on my boat at the same time. If they did fish with me it was only once or twice with each of them alone. That's my dad giving the whippy stick a shot on some blues
at the rip at Sandy Hook. That outing was in 2011, and I'm not sure if there has been another since.
For sure times have changed, families have changed, and interests have changed. But if we could just get these kids into fishing at a young age it would do both them, and us, some good. It's not just about the catching, in fact outside of those really good catches, the memories are more about who you were with and the good times and laughs that you had.