The Story of a Young Boy's First Fish (8 photos)

[Mark Hofman]

Charlie is my 5-year old nephew who lives in Anchorage. On our recent vacation, I promised to take him fishing. The opportunity came while we were building the cabin up near Talkeetna.



The first step was to teach him how to cast an artificial lure and retrieve it. We did this in a shallow, sandy pool where he could watch the spinner as he reeled it back.



<img src="http://www.stlhofman.com/Charlie1.jpg">



With that mastered, we both headed upstream to do a little fishing. You can barely see the yellow of Charlie's PFD, and I'm upstream behind the trees on the left of the creek.







<i><b>"Uncle Mark! Uncle Mark!!"</i></b>



<img src="http://www.stlhofman.com/Charlie2.jpg">







"Let's go show Aunt Rachel what you've got there, Charlie."



<img src="http://www.stlhofman.com/Charlie3.jpg">







"What is it, Charlie?"



<i><b>"It's a FISH!!!"</i></b>



<img src="http://www.stlhofman.com/Charlie4.jpg">





"Let's put it back in the water so it can breathe."



<img src="http://www.stlhofman.com/Charlie5.jpg">





<i>"I just know there's a BIGGER one in here somewhere."</i>



<img src="http://www.stlhofman.com/Charlie6.jpg">







It wasn't a big fish by any massive stretch of the imagination, but the look of utter disbelief that he caught a fish, followed by the giddiness, was a sight to behold. I clipped off the tip of the hook on the spinner which I had rigged him with and, in the tradition of our family, gave it to him as a keepsake.

 

[Mark Hofman]

Same vacation, same stream, but a couple of days earlier, I pulled this nice rainbow from a pool downstream.



<img src="http://www.stlhofman.com/trout.jpg">

 

[Mark Hofman]

But it paled in comparison with the king salmon caught on our charter trip. This is Jay, one of the other two guys on the boat.



<img src="http://www.stlhofman.com/kingsalmon.jpg">

 

[Texas Transplant]

Very nice. I enjoyed the pic's and the story. Brings back very fond memories.



Tex

 

[Marke Cicero]

Good story Uncle MO. Not everyone has a picture of their very first fish ever caught in their lives.



Marke

 

[Terry Heydt]

Nothing like the look on a kid's face when he catches his first. Thanks MO!

 

[Larry Harp]

That's pretty cool Mark. I remember my 1st just I'm sure everyone here does. It's good to be a part of those memories.

Harpo

 

[Mark Hofman]

Thanks! It was pretty special to be part of it.



More Alaska stories and photos are starting to show up here:
http://www.stlhofman.com/news.htm

 

[Greg Meyer]

Nice story... nice tradition... Sort of like my Dad giving me the receipt for the fine for the first tarffic ticket I got after he paid the fine...lol

 

[TrepMan]

Mark - Great pics and even better tradition your passing on. My Dad passed on golf to me, and i'm working on the boys with Fishing. Eli got 9 bluegills today and we lost a nice bass at the boat on the ultralight rod/reel.



"your a good man, charlie brown"!!

 

[Gene B]

Great pics! I had both of my kids first fish mounted. My son's was a 7" blugill and my daughters was a 7" perch. They both hang on the same wall as my 2 bass. Great memories.



Gene