Getting young people into our sport!

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Larry Hemphill
Posts: 782
Joined: Thu May 26, 2005 8:08 pm
Location: Yuba City, California
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Getting young people into our sport!

Post by Larry Hemphill »

My recent reports (below) mentioned 16 yr old twins and dad with a 16 lb Berryessa limit, caught in one hour! Next trip, 6 yr old Allison put the adults to shame as she caught the biggest bass at 3 1/4 lbs - hooked, fought, and landed the bass all by herself! Dad said she is a pretty good angler - who is going to argue - certainly not the guide!!!
Berry - funke - 3.jpg
bery 6 yr girl.jpg
Thursday, April 5th, 2018
By Larry Hemphill Edit
Water Temp: 61-64

Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

Report: I was beaten by a six year old!!! Actually true, but not like it sounds, sorta!! I was looking forward to guiding a six year old young lady with her dad and his brother! I fished some and they fished hard and she beat all of us men with her 3 1/4 lb largemouth. She hooked, fought, and landed the bass by herself. Do I hear junior high bass tournaments?? Fun, fun!! We had another good day at Berryessa and doing some sight fishing for the first time. Water is clear enough to do that. With 4 in the boat, we were limited to mostly drop-shotting Robo worms, and MM111 was again the best color. Morning dawn worked too. Points to the very backs of coves held bass. We stayed in the narrows as I wasn't sure how the little one would do after several hours. She did fine!! Had to be close to a rest room also. Sure glad they leave one in the narrows all year! We found some deep bass also, 25 to 30 feet! We caught 20 + bass with again a nice limit around 14 lbs, all released. Mostly spots and largemouth with a very nice smallie.

Tips: Saw an amazing thing that one doesn't see often. We were fishing a good spot in the early afternoon and saw a few bass close to the boat. Along comes this 4 to 6 lb smallmouth, swimming slowly about 2 feet under the surface. What a sight! She seemed to be fine - don't think anything was wrong with her. This was not in a cove, she was swimming in open water off-shore. This incoming storm will interesting. An April gully-washer with one to three inches of rain. So, how will this effect the spawn? I guess we'll find out!!
HrdHookSets
Posts: 72
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2018 7:31 am
Location: Dixon

Re: Getting young people into our sport!

Post by HrdHookSets »

Great anglers of all and best news the Lil one outfishing everyone great to hear n see keep catching
“Hooked Up On The Stern”
Tymelostent@icloud.com
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Kelly Ripa
Posts: 2233
Joined: Sun May 08, 2005 6:39 am
Location: Ojai

Re: Getting young people into our sport!

Post by Kelly Ripa »

I know your guiding Larry and keeping the kids positive can sometimes mean fishing for dinks etc. as long as they have something wiggling on their line all is good so I am glad she showed that fish who was who. :lol: I am like you in that I feel the need to pay it forward in our sport for the younger generations.

This time of year as I live in SoCal and the fish are on the chew. The way I try to help young people into our sport is by targeting dads with kids in the rental boats. If I am ambling by in my Champion I always take time to find out how their day is going and leave them catching fish if I can. I explain to the kids that Dad took the time to bring them here instead of Disneyland and as I am here on this lake all year long every week I can help. So I set them all up with drop shot rigs maybe a few extra hooks or cheap lead sinkers whatever it takes..Add some likely robo and zoom worms laying around my boat as I just want everyone to have some fun.

I push off and go about my fishing day armed with some Karma. If I see them later on I will pull up and see how it's going. Not all dads are created equal when it comes to the skills we here take for granted after all of the time we have spent in our sport. It's the pay it forward thing I like to do.

I recently found on this site someone who was in need of a backseat on my home water Casitas. It's rare to see much chatter here on WesternBass from SoCal about anything Casitas not concerning a tournament so I was only to happy to help him out. A nicer guy you'd never meet. Good questions and some insights natural and studied(he reads about this sport to help his addiction :lol: .)..because of cancellations etc. I have had room for him twice in the last month...It feels good to help peel back the layers for him that he has only guessed at and cut some time off his path in our sport. He will pay it forward as he already has by showing his interest in taking out a buddy in a rental boat and showing him the ropes in the next few weeks.........

Kelly Ripa :wink:
LET'S GO BRANDON
Remember ...What the Dormouse said...Feed your head!
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