I also "borrowed" my 8 year old niece for the week. I had mentioned that we might go fishing 
when I picked her up. Oh was she excited! She had her brand new "Barbie pole" and her little tackle box ready to go! She had never been fishing before. So now we have a 45 minute car ride back to our house, in which Ethan is telling Ky all about our own fishing adventures. Well let me just tell you, this little girl is a CHATTER BOX! 
By the time we got back home Monday from picking her up it was dinner time and then too late (and rainy) to take them fishing. So about a gazillion times (ok maybe a little exaggeration) that night and the next morning "When are we going fishing?". Well the weather last week basically stunk... But... I'm not a fair weather fisher-woman, so we packed up the rods and some tackle and headed out. We took the kids to Lake Raponda in Wilmington. Being this was Ky's first time I didn't know what to expect. Well let's just say... She's a natural! lol
Here she is with the first fish she ever caught! I tiny little perch. She was so excited!
It was cold, windy and sprinkling and these kids were having a blast. We fished for about 2-3 hours on the first day with the kids catching a bunch of perch.
Wednesday morning "can we go fishing?" Sure thing I say! So Wednesday I took them to the retreat meadows in Brattleboro to see if I could maybe get them into some bass. The bite wasn't so great. They caught a couple of small perch and a couple of tiny small mouths. But they were still having a blast! (no pictures from the second day, they kept me too busy "re-worming" and "de-hooking". My son is in a cast on his right arm so I wasn't down with the fish and worm smell getting into the cast...
and my niece was not interested in touching the worms or the fish at all! lol We fished for about 4-5 hours on the second day.Well day three of our fishing adventure began (at 6:30 am!) to "Can we go fishing?" Again another cold, windy, damp day... So I fed the little fish mongers and get them out the door. I brought them to Harriman Reservoir (our "home playing field" for washing lures) to again see if I could get them into a little bit bigger fish. No luck here at all. The water level is very low (at least 15-20 lower then normal for this time of year) and the debris on shore was bad. So after a couple hours walking around and trying some different spots, I say let's try someplace else. "Ok" back in the car we go and we headed back to Lake Raponda. We were able to meet up with Jeremy, who was working near by and he was able to take a break and came to fish with us for a little while. He showed us some of the "hot spots". We moved around the lake's shore quite a bit and this is how the rest of the day unfolded. Ky was becoming increasingly interested in watching me put the worm on "poor wormy, but he IS feeding the fish"... She's also getting curious about how to take the fish off without hurting them. So (with her stretchy gloves on) she begins the learning process of baiting her own hook and releasing her own fish and in no time, she was the hook baiting and fish releasing princess! She was even taking Ethan's off for him.
This actually gave me a few minutes to try out my new rod and reel I got for my birthday, but that was about it. Then these two hit their "honey hole"
They were getting some good casts out into the lake, but no bites... So Ethan just dropped his line into the water just off the little dock they were standing on and holy cow! They were both pulling fish out within seconds of the line hitting the water! It was hysterical. Now we are talking very TINY LMBs they got into, but they were having a blast!
Then they wanted to go back to the first place we fished on Tuesday. So we packed up and headed back to where we started three days earlier. Well they were back into the perch within seconds of getting out of the car! By now I have given Ky my old "pink lady" thumb caster and she's fishing like a pro and Ethan is not letting the cast hinder his ability to crank them in!
By the end of the day not only was she taking the fish off, but each one that was release got a kiss from Ky, one gave her a little slap in the face with it's tail. This is her favorite story to tell...By now it's almost 5, it's pretty windy and cold AND it had started raining, so of course I say "ok last two casts then we should go" Well you would have thought I was pulling the plug on the TV!
These guys didn't catch any monsters... But they didn't care one bit! They were catching fish! Over the course of our three day fishing adventures I would say these two easily caught between 60-70 fish. I wish I had more pictures, but you know how it goes when you take little people fishing
Wait until we get Ky on the boat with us this summer and she gets to reel in a salmon or a laker! This was one of the best vacations I've had! Nothing like sharing some good quality time OUTDOORS with kids.
