Took my 5YO daughter fishing today. Weather was near perfect -
overcast, mild temps and practically zero wind. The water was at
near-perfect levels and only slighty off-color.

We started out by forgetting to dig worms so when we got to the creek
we had to root around for some bait. Found two slugs - one brown/grey
and another that was a creamy orange color. The brown slug didn't
attract any attention but the orange one caught a nice 12" brookie on
about the third good cast. My daughter casts reasonably well,
considering her age & experience, and she managed to do everything
except bait hooks and land fish today. She cast it, hooked it, fought
it and brought it to the bank where I could get it. Her Shakespeare
Barbie combo works quite well.

She really wanted to catch fish for dinner, so we were hoping to keep
three appropriately sized fish. I showed her how to clean the fish and
also the stomach contents. This fish had several brown nymphs in its
belly along with a big seed of some sort. We used the small roe sacks
and the heart as more bait...

She was fishing pretty well on her own, so I strung up my rod and tied
on a BHPT. With my nymph in the water, she's hollerin' about being
hooked on something and while I'm dealing with her situation I hooked &
missed a small fish. Get her straightened out and fishing again and
promptly caught a nice 13" brookie. This one had a much fuller stomach
(mostly dark & a few orange nymphs) and much more orange/pink flesh.
More time in the stream, I'd wager.

I caught & released a 13-14" brown when she lost her bait to another
fish. She found another orange slug and I put it on her hook. I caught
a smallish brown, maybe 10" and she immediately caught another 12"
brookie. I released mine and put hers in the cooler. A successful
trip, especially in her eyes. We had caught dinner for three and
released two nice fish--not counting the three we hooked & lost. She
even caught her own bait, streamside, no less.

Tom G
havin' trout for dinner tonight
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"The majority of the stupid is invincible and gua&teed for all time."
Albert Einstein