A Regular Babe Winkelman

This is a family weekend at the lake. Betsy, Pete, Henry, and Clara arrived Wednesday evening. Will, Sandy, and Anders arrive tonight. "Grandpa time" is definitely in effect.

Henry was excited to show me his new Spiderman fishing rod. I rigged it up with a practice casting plug, and he spent time on the deck casting down onto the lawn. His technique was pretty good right off the bat.

Henry has a great new fishing hat too.

Meanwhile, Clara was providing adorable smiles.

After breakfast and the practice casting session, we prepared to go out on the lake for a fishing trip.

Henry tried a bobber for awhile, but we were fishing in fairly deep water, so I suggested he just drop a line straight down without a bobber, and he seemed to know how to do this right off.

The next thing we knew, Henry had hooked and landed a bluegill all by himself. He immediately named it Sebby. We put it into the livewell, so he subsequently spent lots of time watching it and the crappie I had caught earlier. That one he named Gill.

Here are Sebby and Gill, respectively.

I thought he might be grossed out by my cleaning his two new pals, but he was not and seemed quite interested in the anatomy of each one and trying to see what they had been eating. Now he is looking forward to a fish dinner. I asked him to carry the filets into the house after cleaning them.

After our evening meal, we went out again for a short while, and Henry did it again. He hooked and landed a 9" bass all by himself. For the day, he caught more fish than anyone else.

Grandma Kathie, Clara, Great Grandma Jane, and Josey were all waiting for us when we came back in for the night.