Scott County Sunfish

by Nathaniel

I was out fishing with family this Saturday at Pride Lake in Scott County Park, near Eldridge, Iowa. I brought along my Suntech Kurenai HM45R. For a few hours, the bites were steady.

Another family arrived and began to fish next to us. As the rest of my family began to pack up, I took out my keiryu rod for one last cast. I nabbed a male bluegill in full breeding coloration. The boy from the next family wandered over and asked to see the fish. He was pretty nervous, and I suspected that this one one of his first fishing trips. He stayed behind me and watched as I caught a few more fish. By this time, his father had untangled the line he was working on and watched me too. I could see that he was getting a bit frustrated with not being able to have his son tie onto a fish, so I handed the rod to the boy and instructed him on where to place the bait. He caught another male bluegill, in full rainbow colors. He continued to tease the fish for another twenty minutes or so. Eventually, his parents decided that it was getting a bit late in the evening, so they came over and thanked me for letting their son use the rod.

I think that the Suntech Kurenai is a pretty good teaching rod for younger kids. Kids want to see a fish fight, but they don't yet understand how to play a fish. The soft tip sections of the Kurenai make even a small bluegill feel huge, but the stiffer midsection and end mean that all the kid has to do is pull up and back to land the fish. In the end, I think the kid was pretty interested in fixed line fishing.

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.