Fishing with kids, Goose poop

I bought my fishing license on Wednesday in anticipation of going fishing today. The weather was beautiful after a full day of rain yesterday and the three boys and one little girl were pretty excited. Since Mama Kim and the kids have made it a regular morning activity to feed the fish in the area we were planning to catch them, it was all familiar enough that adding the new twist of actually catching the fish made it seem very exciting.
Recently I bought some fishing gear from a coworker and among the things he sold me was a very nice rod and reel but it is a spinning reel and those do not work well for kids. So while I was at Walmart getting the license I also bought a closed face bait casting reel and rod combination. It was an Ugly Stick rod which appealed to the eight-year-old boys. I also bought a container of giant meal worms. That really appealed to the older boys.
We started off pretty well catching some small bluegills at the feeding spot. I spent a lot of time baiting the hook while avoiding getting stuck by it, teaching the boys how to cast and keeping clear of the multitude of little piles of goose poop. Turned out that one of the poop machines living in the pond – a large white duck with an unusual red growth on his beak – was very interested in our little fishing party, which terrified the little girl while thrilling the boys to death. Most of the thirty six meal worms were fed to that duck rather than the fish.
Each of the older boys caught a fish (which they had to handle before releasing) and Mama Kim caught two also (neither of which she handled), so it was a remarkably successful trip. The rod and reel I bought for the kids performed flawlessly – my new spinning reel not so much, but I eventually figured it out. After about an hour and one half we headed to the car, double checked for goose poop clogged shoes soles, warned about keeping hands out of our mouths until they were properly washed and made the two mile drive home. I was fun. I hope it was a good memory for the boys. I hope the little one forgets about the overly friendly “dinosaur duck” – that’s what the boys called it.
I think we will do it again soon.