A VERY YOUNG FISHERMAN'S TALE

All hail
A fishing tale
One of few
That are true
By Grampa Bindle

One late-summer weekend I happened to be at my trailer at Little Bear Lake after
spending a whole week of puttering and fishing when my grandson Liam and his mother
and friend arrived. They came to help friends Dave Carpenter and his wife Honor work
on their newly acquired cabin. The next day, after a good days work at the cabin site,
Dave and Honor invited everyone to go over to Dorothy Lake to test the trout. They set
out in three canoes to cross the length of the smaller part of Little Bear, so I took little
Liam down to the narrows to still-fish for Jackfish along the shore.

We stopped at the trailer to get our gear. Liam, being only 3 1/2 years old, was quite
excited to "go fishin". We got down to the narrows and surprisingly no one else was
around. It is a popular spot where people gather to fish, or just sit and watch the gulls and
loons parade by in the evening. We set up two rods with open bail spinning reels, 15
pound lines, 18 inch 30 pound fine wire leaders, and a smelt on each hook. I had made up
some pipe rod-holders to stick in the sand, so I threw out the lines, left the bails open , set
the rods in the holders and sat back. Liam was all eyes and questions, really interested in
the beautiful sand shore. There were no mosquitoes or sandflies. It was a great beginning
to the evening. A couple of older ladies came down to fish and Liam struck up a
conversation with them. Several resets of the lines took place over the next hour but no
fish action.

We noticed the gang coming back from Dorothy Lake, one canoe after another spread out
about 300 yards apart. I pointed out to Liam that his mom and the rest were going back to
make supper, and I said, " I guess we should pack up our rods. There has been no action."
He said it was "slow fishing". I brought my line in and cleared it and was just going to do
the same with his when I noticed the line coming off his bail. I showed this to Liam and
he sure became all interested. He wanted to know what was going on. I told him a fish
had just taken his smelt bait and was swimming off. I said, " We'll let him run with it and
he should swallow the baited hook." He called to the ladies and they came running to see
this "new" way of fishing. After several minutes I said we should close the bail and set
the hook and see what we have. "Let's do it Grampa," was his reply.

He couldn't handle the load so I started reeling in the line. We had a good one on. When
the fish ran out of fight I said to Liam, "Get the landing net and be ready to scoop up the
fish." Well, he ran and grabbed that big net and one of the ladies came to help him. He
was sure dancing and excited, saying, "Don't loose him!" We got the Jack into the net
and I got a bit nervous when it was thrashing around. I didn't want Liam to get his hands
too close to the business end of this fish. Liam was some excited and so were the ladies.
He said, " Its the biggest fish in the world, Grampa."

We weighed the fish and it was 3 1/2 pounds! Not bad for a wee tike. He carried it back
to the truck, proud as punch and I can't blame him. We met his mom coming to find us
and Liam just shouted his catch to her. She was floored. They only got a 9 inch brook
trout among 7 people on their canoe excursion. That night we had Jackfish, a small trout
and a great supper. Liam Bindle was hooked for life as a fisherman. As he pointed to me
across the table he said, "I am going fishing again with grampa next year." I sure will be
looking forward to it, and we may even catch a brown trout.