[Shannon]

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.

 

[Jared]

Thats awesome Shannon! Im sure your son loved every minute of it. Its cool that you got him to give the fish a kiss before ya let it go. Hes a mini Jimmy Houston in training

 

[Shannon]

Yea it was cool, I got him to do it a couple months ago too but I need to have someone along to get a picture of that deal.
Speaking of Jimmy houston, I have a picture of me and my son from several years ago with his first trout that I had Jimmy autograph for me at the Baltimore Bass Pro Shops Grand Opening.

 

[Jared]

No way? cool! You should scan it and post it here. Id like to see that

 

[fish4funinfl]

To kewl Shannon !!! Get his casting down and turn him lose with a spinner, buzz or crank and let him reel all he wants too.

 

[Shannon]

I did tie on a beetle spin with a grub with the hopes that some small bass would tear it up, but he had pretty much lost the attention span after catching those three. I will try to get that picture scanned in.