A day he still remembers

A few years back, one of my former boy scouts whose family had moved to Texas came to Kalamazoo to "help" me with summer camp. Fred was old enough to go as and adult and had a blast just being around the old gang for a week. At the end of the week, I took him fishing at Gourdneck. Fred's dad did not enjoy fishing, so he had never been. It was one of those days that no matter how hard you worked to make sure the kid caught fish, they didn't cooperate. We tried all the bream and rock bass beds, magic incantations and the like. He caught a few small ones, but they just wouldn't bite if he had the pole in his hand. I'd find them and as soon as the pole was transferred they headed for the hills. Towards the end of the day, we were drifting along the north shore, where sometimes something is moving with Fred chunking a spinner. A small northern (28") decided the lure looked good and Fred boated the biggest fish he had ever caught. We took pictures and had grilled pike for dinner. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, he still remembers the fishing trip. Guess I may have paid my dad back by 0.00001%. Still have a long way to go.

PS. It had to be a good day. I really hadn't considered the fact that Fred was of an age that he needed a fishing license and was "out of state" to boot. I also didn't think ahead enough to remember that if CO Jankowski was on the lake, I was always her first stop. She smiled on us that day. She asked me for my license, looked at the fish and wished us a good day.