If you want to talk fishin'...

Well I guess that'd be okay.

I had a friend once who said he was too busy fishing to go golfing.

And it occurred to me that he had his priorities in the right place.

'course his kids were grown and gone. And I'm not looking forward to the day that happens to me. I want my kids around for a good long time.

There will come a time when I'll go "combat fishing" in Alaska. But I'm going to do it with gloved hands.

In the mean time, it's a bit nippy out there to be fishing. Bass ain't biting. And the little pond behind the house doesn't have walleye.

A few more warm days and we'll see some action from the crappie and bass and bluegill. And if not, I'll stock the pond for next year.

So the girls and I walked up to the pond on Sunday afternoon and got our lines wet for an hour or so. The girls had corn for bait. I used a floating bass lure. No action, but we did see a turtle and a beaver. Frogs eggs and a hungry salamander, too.

The local department of game and inland fisheries stocked the streams with trout the other day. April first was the first day of trout season. Doesn't seem too sporting to me...these guys were pulling trout by the dozens out of the stream. Fun at first, but you know...

The girls had as much fun on the walk to and from the pond. Wild turkeys were out chatting at each other. Gold finch out, too. And our local maple syrup guy was boiling off the last 10 gallons of sap for the season. My trees stopped producing a couple of weeks ago. But I have several pints to last a couple of months.

It wasn't until I was nearly 30 that I realized that you didn't go fishing to catch fish.

I think my girls are figuring that out already. And if they grow up wanting to teach their kids how to fish, then I've done something right.