My worst day as a father

[Jayhad]

So I have a little boy, almost 4. He got an Echo practice rod when he was 2.  He fished a Sage TXL2710 with a Sage Click II, he's really got a handle on streamer angling and has just started mixing it up with hopper-dropper rigs.

He's banged out some sweet gold during high waters, I couldn't be prouder.

We recently got back from a camping and fishing trip, and he said something that cut me to the core. He got his hands on classically coloured rainbow, he was blown away. He then told me the rainbow is now his favorite fish..... WTF?

What did I do as a father to fail in such a manner?

Rainbows.... come on, I told him they are the equivalent to Instagram butt models, no substance, no soul, just the same looks as next one.

I did the only things I could think,  I sprayed bug spray and SPF on his flies, broke his TXL over my knee and then took him to WalMart bought him an uglystick and some Raps.

 

I think I'm going to head to the downtown browntown section with a bottle of wild turkey and contemplate my very existence.

Thoughts?

Flyfishy where you at sucka?

[jtaylor]

Great post!!!!

[bowbonehead]

Browns are just like a Trophy wife all looks no substance..... from my perspective you have done nothing wrong.... buy him a Deathstar and send after some chrome this fall

[monger]

It's a complex world. At least he still likes fishing. God forbid he learns about bobbers and whitefish

[Flyfisher]

There's a remote chance that he's just preparing you for the possibility that he may one day carry a rainbow banner. Fish or otherwise I wouldn't be to worried. 

[jasonvilly]

My experience with the copious amounts of kids I teach is that he probably picked up this bad habit from some shady friend on some sleezy backcountry stream. 

Hopefully they don’t introduce him to other bad habits like slough sharks. 

Everyone knows rainbows are just the gateway.

[Jayhad]

13 hours ago, jasonvilly said:

 

Hopefully they don’t introduce him to the to other bad habits like slough sharks. 

 

When I grew up we called those course fish..... apparently that's not a PC term

[FishnChips]

Love it. Reminds me of my late teenage years. My younger brother came out of the closet around the same time I told my parents I had become a conservation oriented fly fisherman... my Dad was so ashamed of me, he couldn't speak. My gay brother got the boat and the cabin!

Your young man has an eye for beauty methinks...  at least Rainbow Trout are native to Canada and Alberta, those Bow River Loch Leven Brown Trout are exotics from the old world, or in some cases from Germany...  who would want to catch a lazy, louche, decadent euro-trutta that is the colour of diarrhea?

Coarse fish vs Game fish is an old country term. Vestiges of the British Class system. Game fish were trout and salmonids, while everything else like Chub and Dace and Eel and Pike and Walleye were, well of course, coarse. A bit out of fashion here in Canada, but still used to identify seasonal fisheries and the fishermen and fisherwomen in Bonnie Ol' England, Scotland and Wales.

The rainbow trout species and myriad variants have proven themselves to be the most amazingly adaptive little fish. From Chromers, through to the California Golden Trout they are an incredible and complex example of tenacity and beauty.

Like most fathers, do you not hope that your children grow up to transcend their own parentage? Do we not hope they will go beyond our meagre ability, and fly forth from the nest to achieve their true potential? I believe your young lad is well on his way! Bravo!