On the Pond With One Less Paddle
Last weekend my son and I went fishing (one of my favorite frugal activities) on a pond a quarter mile through the woods behind our house (we cheated and drove around to the main entrance a 30 second ride). At his request, we pulled out an old inflatable raft I had that we had use a few times in the past, but in recent years he had been nervous about using despite having life vests. He is coming up on 12 and a better swimmer now, I guess he wanted the experience more than his concern about the raft (it is perfectly seaworthy).
So we inflated it with the hand pump (I couldn't find the power pump), we loaded the boat with gear, and we shoved off. The weather was great-- sunny and breezy.
We had a great time catching some fish, but I realized more happened on this trip, we:
- Fished in a new way-- on the water
- Developed teamwork-- we had to net each other's fish (a few small yellow perch, a sunny, and a 10 inch large mouth bass)
- Developed more trust-- working together in a raft
- Built our relationship-- quality father and son time
Now the funny part-- we tooled around the pond for two and one half hours, but in the last thirty minutes we had a mini disaster: one of the paddle blades came off and sunk. The surprising thing is I didn't have a temper tantrum and my son was surprisingly calm. We actually had fun canoe paddling back in as my wife and daughter who had walked around to see us cheered us on.
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Categories: Activities, Frugality, Parenting, Green Living, Simple Living, Personal Philosophy
Tags: Frugality Parenting Frugal Simple Living Activities Green Living Fishing Personal Philosophy
Sounds like great family fun. Fishing on the water is very different than from the shore and usually much more productive. The big advantage is playing your lures off the shoreline and out into deeper water.
It's funny you should mention the paddle incident. I bought a "just in case" boat paddle a few weeks ago and purposely selected the all wood paddle because it would float.
Also, about 12 years ago I was interested in frugal fishing on the water so I purchased a 4 man inflatable boat and a much smaller kids boat. I built a wooden transom to mount a trolling motor on the large boat, and put the battery out of the way in the kids boat that was in tow just behind the larger craft.
I also made plywood bottoms for each boat and protected the edges with duct tape (of course). In this way, I had a strong boat bottom for sitting and storing tackle boxes and a cooler, and no room taken up in the main boat by the battery. It was a great little one or two man fishing setup that cost about $200 for everything - boats, motor, battery and reinforced boat bottoms.
Clair
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Sounds like a nice set-up. My son mentioned getting a tow raft for the gear. The paddles are the breakdown kind that came with the raft. It was my fault for not double checking the second coupling.
My "five man" raft just fits the two of us and the gear. I will look for a tow raft, but want an anchor first. I would really like a jon boat and a trailer-- sometimes people give them away. Add a trolling motor and we will be set.
For those who read this and wonder what would happen in the event of the loss of both oars? Here is my answer:
In a complete disaster, I would have gotten in the water and kicked us in (I am very comfortable in the water).
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