Pond Fishin 10/08/06

I bought my son a new Zebco 33 and small tackle box for his 9th birthday on Saturday so we had to go fishing on Sunday. I took him to a neighborhood pond in Titusville, FL behind a friends house. We started around 11:00 and fished for about 3 1/2 hours. He caught three small bass on senko's and a black/blue paddle-tail worm, he is definitely in training but coming along. I helped with the casting and setting the hook, he is learning the push button but his timing is way off. He gets frustrated because I am trying to get him to let it sit, reel nice and slow, and not to keep waving the rod all around. I know I need to have a lot more patience because it is frustrating for me as well because I know that his fine motor skills are lacking because of his special needs -(Downs Syndrome) as well as his attention span. On the brighter side we had fun and I even got him to touch all the fish and he gave one of them a kiss before we put it back. I caught 7 or 8 after he lost interest while he played with his toys and a stick on the dock. I got one about 2 lbs. on a horny toad (Okeechobee Craw color) and the rest on senkos of different colors. Four of the fish including the toad fish came from under a bush where there is a drain pipe coming in under the water and I lost a nice one about 2 1/2 lbs. on a senko while I was trying to get him to come over and crank it in.