Cool post-fishing story

[crash]

I was out over the weekend with my friend and his friend and his 11 year old son and we had one small keeper that went in the box. They don't get out all that much so a keeper is a pretty big deal to them, especially to the kid.

My buddy and his friend are cleaning the boat and I'm on the way to a cleaning station to clean the fish when the 11 year old is wants to watch and see. I know he hasn't seen many fish being cleaned so I tell him its going to be gross, but he insisted because he said it was part of being a good fisherman, his words, not mine, I'm impressed already.

He watches like an eagle as I show him how my way of cleaning the fish, and I show him exactly how I run the knife along to maximize the yield. I flip the fish over to do the second fillet and to my surprise he wants to try, he's only 11, and this is only his second year fishing.

Well, he was paying attention the first time, he did really well, a couple of small corrections and suggestions from me, but he did an outstanding job. Looked a heck of a lot better than my first fillet job, and almost as good as my current fillet job.

To me, this is whats its all about. An 11 year old wanting to wanting to learn every aspect of fishing, even the less glorious side, I can tell he's a great fisherman in the making. I was happy as anything to be able to share that knowledge with him. His dad was a little freaked out that I let him play with a fillet knife, but hey, what are ya gonna do.