It was a gorgeous day fishing at the lake with Dad.



We loaded the van with a picnic lunch and drinks in a cooler, chairs, fishing poles, tackle boxes, and the stroller and headed to the lake for a relaxing afternoon.



Someday, when the kids are older, we want to take them fishing from a boat to access the best locations.  But for now, while they are little, we fish from the bank.



We do wish there were more options for public access for bank fishing.  Before coming to Lake Lure today, we also drove to Lake Adger.  But though they had public access for boats, they did not have public access for bank fishing.  We have found this same problem at a lot of lakes we have visited.  Most of the banks at the lakes are private property, so to get good access one really needs a boat. 

But at Lake Lure, there is a nice walking park with a cleared path, and the bank is mowed and kept nice, and they allow public access for bank fishing from there.



We chose a lovely spot to set up our gear.  It is an inlet channel and the water was less choppy compared to the larger lake area. 



All of the kids enjoy learning how to fish.  The older boys are learning how to bait their hook and they cast their poles very well.  The younger children still need almost everything done for them, though the six year old learned to cast his pole by himself today.   He was able to get it out about 12 feet or so in the water.  

The four year old would reel hers in just minutes after daddy would cast it out for her.  He said she needed it re-casted faster than he could keep up. 

The two year old played with a stick and a rope (his fishing pole).  But instead of casting the rope into the water, he hung onto the rope and cast his pole (stick) into the water.  Then he enjoyed reeling in his stick.  It was really funny to watch him, except for the two times he let go, and I had to go after the stick “pole” before it drifted to far out to sea! 



We brought three kinds of bait today (red worms, night crawlers, and cat fish bait), plus several artificial forms of bait in the tackle box too.

My 11 year old son is holding up a Canadian night crawler worm.  It looked like a small snake, and when I went to take the picture, it had already coiled itself back into less than half it’s length.  These worms are huge!



We actually did see a small water snake just after taking this picture.  It was about a foot long.  It swam right towards us as if to check us out.   It came within a few inches of the bank, then it turned and swam away.  The children squealed in delight to have seen a real snake so close to us today.



For the entire three hours we fished at the lake, the fish kept stealing our bait.  Cast after cast, we had to reload our hooks.  There was a huge amount of little baby fish in the water, that were two inches or less in length, and they acted like little piranha.  As soon as the hooks hit the water, they devored the bait, nibble after nibble.  We did get to see groups (schools) of 20 to 50 of these little bluegill fish near the shore when my son tossed in some chips into the water. 



It is amazing to observe so many amazing things on a mini-trip like we took today.  This is a great opportunity to talk to the kids about God’s creation, natural science, life skills, observations of the environment, and more. 



Besides a beautiful lake of water, there was so much more to observe, such as gorgeous mountains on all sides rising high above the lake, a beautiful sky with swirling white clouds, a hawk flying overhead, a blue heron swooping down to scout the water for food, a snake in the water, schools of baby bluegill fish, a dying fish floating on the water, bees pollinating flowers, wasps looking for a meal, ducks, geese, beautiful trees, people in boats of all kinds, people enjoying the lake fishing and swimming, a wedding next to the lake, a birthday party, ants, waves crashing to the shore, and more.

 

We decided to take a sample of the lake home so we can see under the microscope more things we could not see with our eyes today.  The microscope will give us the ability to see tiny creatures living in the water and tiny things in the sand.  We got a sample of just water, and a sample of water with sand.  We will use this in our studies this week to further our understanding about life in the lake.



About the last half hour, we were joined by several beautiful ducks.  Four stayed real close to us and another group of four were about another 20 feet away.



When I stepped away from the tackle boxes, the male duck came up out of the water and walked a complete circle around our belongings checking everything out.  Then he went back into the water and rejoined his group.  It was so funny.



Even with a toddler smacking the water with a stick, these littl
e ducks were determined to stay close by.  They came back repeatedly. 



We had quite the time with the little fish stealing our bait.  They ate the red worms, the night crawlers, and even the catfish bait.  Finally, the last 30 minutes or so, dad put on some artificial worms on the younger kids poles.  No more lost bait, but….no more bites either.  But he was tuckered out with re-loading their hooks every few minutes. 



I spent most of the time just enjoying watching my family.  They are funny, interesting, and a blessing.   I took this picture of them just before packing up to leave.   They all had such a good time fishing with Dad today.

The new life growing inside my womb will be here soon and join the line up of this beautiful family.  I truly am blessed!



The lake was so beautiful today, and even the sky was gorgeous.  I could have just layed back on a blanket and enjoyed many more hours of its beauty.



I truly enjoyed today, being in the company of my family and the awesomeness of God’s creation.




This post will be linked up with
No Time For Flash Cards
Science Sunday
Raising Homemakers