Michael Pearce's Kansas Outdoors

I gained a couple of new fishing partners last evening – Michelle and her six-year-old son, Konner. She’s been a good friend of our family since her high school days with our daughter, Lindsey.

Her son’s the kind of kid who gives you faith in our future – articulate, intelligent, extremely polite, respectful and sees the world as a giant adventure.

Six-year-old Konner's first fish was a two-pound bass. His second was the three-pounder pictured.

You know what had to happen when I learned he’d never caught a fish.

Rather than ol’ fashioned hook-and-bobber fishing, which can bring boredom, I set Konner up with a Zebco 33 spin-cast reel and a spinner spiced-up with a worm.

For a kid simply casting is an adventure.

Konner’s from an athletic family so casting wasn’t a problem. Most of his casts went well. He quickly learned to vary the height of his rod tip and speed of his retrieve to keep the lure out of the moss.

He asked a lot of good questions, especially when a fish was brought aboard. Konner showed no fear of touching any catch and gladly did the honors when it was time for something to be released.

His first fish was a two-pound bass. His second was a three-pounder. Both taxed his small arms as did a few more nice bass as the evening wore-on. He never gave-up fighting a fish and he never stopped giggling during the event.

Seemingly rare for his generation Konner is long on quality time with his parents and short on time in front of the television. He’s learned to entertain himself and be creative.

So for the trip Konner made his own simple fishing pole at home. It was a short stick, a section of dental floss and a staple for a hook. Pretty cool, huh?

Once while I was untangling a mess from his rod Konner announced he was going to try fishing with “his” fishing pole. When he lowered the floss overboard the staple must have surprised a fish on our stringer because the water erupted.

Water from the spray dripping from his face Konner, and his mom laughed a long time about the wet surprise.

At least a dozen times during the two hours Konner commented how much he enjoyed fishing.

Trust me, I enjoyed fishing with Konner and his mom even more.

It was a freaky kind of deal when I had a rod and reel go overboard late in the summer. It was no real surprise that I eventually got it back.

I was helping a guest and had a plastic worm about three feet in the water over the side of the boat. The fish were active and a bass grabbed the lure. No, I never lost that rod and reel.

As the bass pulled down on the line it caused the back of that rod to tip up. It hit another rod and tossed it in the drink. Didn’t care much for the rod but it was favorite bait-casting reel.

A few days ago I was back at the same pond and darkness was coming fast. Still, I figured I had 5-10 minutes to spare so I went to the general area of where I’d lost the outfit.

To the end of the line of my heaviest outfit I tied an old-fashioned snap chain stringer. You know the kind, about four feet of chain with metal snaps for holding fish.

I opened every snap and slowly moved over the area. Nada on my first pass.

On my second drift through I felt added weight, slowly reeled up the line and found the lost rod and reel. Two of open snaps had connected. One was between the line and the rod and the other had the reel.

A buddy is cleaning the reel and said it’ll be good as new. I’m picking it up today.

That’s the fourth time I’ve used the open chain stringer to pull rods from the water. I think I’m four for four, actually.

The most important was the first time I tried it. I was about 15 and a buddy kicked a spinning outfit off the dock. I was my Dad’s favorite rod and reel and Father’s Day gift from my mother who’d died the year before.

It’s now mine and considered a family heirloom.