Fishing with Matthew

     I have been waiting for the time to come when Danny and I would take Matthew on his first fishing trip and yesterday, August 11, 2018, was the day. Matthew is three and a half years old now and time was wasting.
     I hooked up the boat and drove over to their house to pick up Danny and Matthew. When I got there Matthew and MJ were upstairs in the play room and after several attempts to call them down I went up to get them, when I opened the door I saw wall to wall toys scattered across the floor, everything from cars to trains and dolls. The mess reminded me of Linda's efforts to get the boys to clean their rooms, on one occasion Danny spent an hour cleaning his room after which Linda looked in and saw that not much had changed but Danny was proud of the fact that there was now a path thru the mess on the floor, MJ and Matthew are their fathers children.
     We got Matthew loaded up and off we went to the lake, Matthew quickly feel asleep in his car seat.
     When we got to the boat ramp we got Matthew into his life jacket and started getting the boat ready to launch. I lifted him into the boat and climbed in, Danny backed us into the water and I started the engine and backed out. I looked down at Matthew who was holding tight to his water bottle and the leg of my shorts. I asked him if he was having fun and he said "I afraid, I want to go home ".
     Danny got in the boat and had a seat next to Matthew as I slowly drove off into the lake, Danny talked to him and even held him as I picked up speed. We didn't go far before we stopped, Matthew was a little bit more at ease but he still wanted to hold to one of us. It was about this time that I remembered that silly Grandpa had forgotten to get any worms for bait so we had to turn around. I left Danny and Matthew in the boat while I went looking for bait, on returning Matthew was still in the boat with Dad but he hadn't moved from his seat.
     We eased over to a spot close by and started fishing, I caught one and Matthew was somewhat impressed but he didn't want to touch it. Danny baited Matthews hook with a wriggling worm all the time telling Matthew all about the process but Matthew didn't show much interest. He did however hold his rod  and worked the handle as he rewound the line but then he would tell Danny " you do it ". After a while we found a couple of spots and Matthew was able to get a Bream or Blue Gill on the hook and he did stand up in the boat but wouldn't move from the spot in front of his seat.
     I found a blue plastic ball floating in the water and picked it up, Matthew was quite excited with it as blue was a favorite color. By the end of the day Matthew was still a little unnerved by the whole experience, he was awake for the ride back and we stopped at the Dairy Queen for lunch.
     Overall Matthew's  first fishing trip was not that impressive to him, when he got home he was more interested in showing Mom the blue ball that Grandpa found in the water. As for me I was happy to be out on the water with my boys, over time Matthew may take to fishing or maybe not, as long as he is happy and healthy that works for me.