Gone fishing

Yesterday, we took our daughter on her first fishing outing. She was sooo excited about it, which isn't surprising since she's been bugging us about going fishing for months and even pretended to fish with a makeshift fishing pole with her toys. She's always talking about fishing and with summer coming to a close, I decided we can't end her summer without going fishing! So on Saturday I decided "we're going fishing tomorrow!" and that was that.

We went to get the fishing gear and I was so clueless over all the different kinds of fishing stuff they had at the store. Fortunately, hubby knew EXACTLY what we needed and what everything was, so I pretty much blankly stared at the fishing stuff while the two of them huddled together over this part of the aisle or that part. Jennifer was so into all of it and I had to smile when she kept asking her dad, "What's this for? What's that for?" Her enthusiasm waivered, however, when she was looking at this book on fishing and saw a picture of someone gutting a fish. She made a face and said, "That's so gross." I laughed and said, "That's part of the fishing experience." (One which, thankfully, I haven't had to experience yet.)

After we bought the gear, we took it home and the two of them sat at the kitchen table getting everything ready and together. Meanwhile, I got the camera stuff ready, made lunch and threw together a bag of snacks. Then we headed out to a nearby park, which borders the Willamette River. I LOVE this river. It's so BIG and beautiful! We've been to it before -- once when we went out to Blue River -- and it's just really inspiring to sit on the shore just looking out at the river. The current, however, is normally strong, and that was a problem for Jen because the current kept leading her hook to the rocks where it got stuck. Three times it got stuck and one time, her dad couldn't free it so he had to cut the line and rehook it.

One thing Jennifer couldn't catch on to was the patience that fishing requires. Even as she sat on the tackle box with her line in the water, she kept fidgeting and moving her pole up and down. I kept reminding her to be patient and not move her line around so much, that the fish take a long time to bite. She got a little casting-happy with her line, and even though I was sitting about 3 feet behind her, I said, "Careful where you throw that thing, Jen. I'm right behind you." (Well, the casting was good practice for her.)

I didn't get to fish while her and the hubby did, but I DID get to snap some photos. I tried to get a good picture of hubby while he stood to the side fishing, but darn if he would even HOLD STILL for a shot! (Like father, like daughter.) I did take one photo of him, though. The thing about the pictures is that they weren't very bright. It was an overcast day, with bits of sprinkling here and there, and hardly a sign of the sun to allow for good quality pictures. Despite this, I did take a picture of the both of them along the shore which I thought was still nice. I'm sending the pics to the fam and posting a few on my dA scrap book. (The above picture is one such pic. I know it's grainy. I used PhotoShop to brighten it.)

The fish weren't biting that day so after a while, we packed up and went to another area of the park where there was a "duck pond." There were A LOT of ducks!! Along with geese and pigeons. I sat on the bench taking more pictures while hubby and Jen fed the ducks. She tried to pet the ducks but they kept running away. It was so cute to watch, though.

Despite not catching any fish on her fist fishing outing. Jennifer still had a great time and she's looking forward to going again. I'm looking forward to having a chance to get some fishing done next time, too.