About ten days ago, before I left to the bay area for my 45th high school reunion, I earned some positive karma points. I headed down to the ten mile area again, just to see if the fish were still there. They were.
I dropped anchor in my usual spot to find the boat above, filled with a family of four, anchored against the shore right across the deep channel from me. I told the marina to send people down to ten mile and even included a map showing where I’ve been fishing. The family was in the right area, just on the wrong side of the deep channel.
Two boys, about ages 12 and 10, were sitting in the front seats throwing out spinners. As I faced them, about 75 yards away, I landed 6 fish in the first 15 minutes. After seeing my success, they lifted their anchor to move.
I waved them over towards me, vigorously. They didn’t want to get too close and got about 50 feet from my boat. I told them where the fish were and that they should set their anchor where they were. The mother stated that this was the boys first time ever fishing.
They had trouble with their anchor and were drifting down lake from the wind. However, they were in fish holding water and one of the boys soon caught and landed his first trout. Their boat drifted several hundred yards down lake and they motored back up to me. I told them to move above me as I lifted my anchor to leave. They agreed that floating down lake starting above my position was their best bet.
I motored back to the marina and told Louise and Greg my interactions with the young family. I really wanted everyone to catch fish. The family returned about 90 minutes later, with 7 nice trout, which were hard to see from the huge smiles of the two boys. I did something right.
The father quietly thanked me for my help, as did the mother. I felt that I did the right thing, getting youngsters on to fish. It was a good start for the weekend I would spend in San Carlos at my informal high school reunion.
Tight Lines.