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Do you remember your first time?


Nothing stands out in my mind as much as my first experience with a fish. My uncle had taken me to a local farm pond to watch some of his friends run a jet ski. It was a calm evening in midsummer in which my parents couldn’t take another minute of
a young, bored overactive kid.

It didn’t take long once we arrived for me to become curious, amazed with the splendor of my surroundings.  It was my first trip to a farm pond that I could remember. All around me was wildlife, critters making little noises, birds chattering to each other, and of course this big body of water that at the time seemed to be larger than life. Nothing could compare or had ever caught my attention as this did. The warm rays of the dark orange sun were softly  welcoming me. It was a perfect, late July evening to be a young boy outdoors.

Within minutes I had forgotten about the jet ski or that there was even anyone else there.  I ran to the dock and sat on the end. I sat there and tried to beam my vision through the water, replicating Steve Austin in the Six Million Dollar Man to see what was below the surface, as I
squinted my eyes, a little dark bug caught my attention on the dock beside me. It was a cricket sitting there chirping, sharing his space, but unaware that I existed. I watched for a minute and decided I needed to pick it up. As I reached out to grab it, it jumped forward and into the water. I sat there and watched it try to move around, its legs kicking, only to move it in circles creating little ripples on the water’s-mirror like surface. Suddenly the water boiled, and in a split second that cricket had disappeared. I was shocked. I remember asking myself, “ Was that a fish? “ I yelled to my uncle to come and look and told him what had happened. Once I learned that a fish had surfaced and had eaten that cricket, the hunt was on!

For the next hour or so I gathered crickets like it was Easter and there was money in one of those Eggs I was searching for. I went back to the dock, and one at a time I relived that experience again and again. Fish just kept coming and boiling the surface, and occasionally one
would jump out of the water.

That experience led to even more trips, but this time with a fishing pole, a Zebco 202. I searched for crickets as before, but instead of just dropping them in from the dock, I put one on my hook. I went from watching the ripples and anticipating the fish making the water boil, to my
fishing pole coming to life! I still say that a fishing pole in your hand must be attached to every nerve in your body because when the pole came to life I could feel it all the way to my toes.

I had caught my first fish! I love to relive that moment in my mind, and almost 30 years later I still long to feel my rod come to life as it did that day. I went from curious to addicted and now live that dream every day as a fishing guide and captain on Lake Erie. On occasion when I
walk in the garage and see that old Zebco 202 on the wall, I reflect back to my youth and am grateful that my uncle had time to take me fishing.

Take a kid fishing; it may change his life!

Good fishing,

Captain Troy Young
Erie’s Future Charters

 

Erie's Future Charters
Western and Central Basin Charters
3475 Ridgeton Rd.
Bucyrus, Ohio 44820
Office: (419) 562-7472 - Boat: (419) 569-3100
E-Mail: captaintroy@eriesfuturecharters.com
Website: http://www.eriesfuturecharters.com