Fishing!!

For the past year or so, our family has been "hooked" on fishing! We have gone everywhere from the two area lakes to private ponds of friends. We have even gone to our Brother-in-law's house in Bishopville so that Craig and Drew could go bow-fishing at night in the river. Mikayla and I got to spend time with the girls while the boys went fishing! That trip was a lot of fun, and we can't wait to do that again!! These pictures were taken while we fished off of a public dock at Lake Bowen. Our girl is not afraid to touch the worms!
Drew and Mikayla show off Drew's catch. Mikayla wasn't so sure about touching the fish at first. Please notice the man in the background and notice the size of the fish that Drew is holding...
Craig calls fish that are this size "a pair of eyeballs" and those are the only things that were biting our hooks while we were at this dock on this particular day. When they would "nibble" on the worm, it would sink the entire cork and it looked like you had a "whopper fish" on the line. Every time you would try to reel it in, the worm would be gone, but still no fish. One time, while I was holding the rod, I jerked on it because I didn't want the fish to get away. When I did, the whole line (hook, cork, sinkers, etc.) came flying up out of the water and landed on this poor man who was just trying to catch fish himself. I was so embarrassed and tried to hide behind Craig. I couldn't apologize enough. Needless to say, we didn't stay too long after that...

Drew shows off the fish he finally hooked! We have had a lot of fun as a family on these fishing trips. Craig is a good sport about it all - even though neither me nor Mikayla will bait a hook or take the fish off. We just like to cast and reel, but he is always sweet about it and keeps taking us back!! Drew has really surprised us, though! When we went to the mountains last summer, we got NC fishing licenses so we could fish while we were there and Drew baited his own hook, caught some trout, and took them off his line all by himself. He has really enjoyed fishing, and will often ask to go!!

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We have had some good laughs and great conversation, and most importantly a lot of family fun on these trips!! And, I have caught the biggest fish so far of all the times we have gone!! I can't really claim the whole catch, though, because like I said, all I do is cast and reel...