Crawdad Fishin'

My son is a bit of an "Old Soul".  I've often said that he's an 80 year old man trapped in a nine year old body.  He has more patience and concentration than most of his buddies, and he enjoys being outside for long stretches of time.  He can fish for hours without getting bored, and just when the fish start biting, his friends are ready to go home. Finding the right fishing buddy was a tough task for him.

He often begged us to take him fishing at the lake, but when our chores prevented us from going, we would make a compromise.  Instead of walking to the big lake down the road, we allowed him to go to the pasture in front of our house to explore the tiny little pond and wetlands that are fed by the water from our well.  The pond is shallow, and I could easily keep my eyes on him from the front window.

He would take his little fishing pole and practice casting it into the water.  Although there are no fish in the pond, he quickly discovered that it was loaded with crawdads, ducks, and all types of insects.  In short, it was the perfect playground for a little boy.

Over the years he has attempted to float across the pond in homemade rafts like Tom Sawyer, and tried to build bridges across the water.  He's searched for duck nests, and watched ducklings hatch and swim.  He's caught snakes, ladybugs, and dragonflies.  That little pond has been an outdoor schoolroom loaded with educational lessons for a young boy.

But the thing that draws my boy back week after week is the crawdad fishing.  He LOVES to catch crawdads. 

Today he felt so honored to have his "Grumpie" for a fishing buddy.  My dad bought him a new fishing net, and he was anxious to try it out.  After a quick raid of the refrigerator for hot dogs and turkey bait, my son loaded up the red wagon with "fishing" supplies: An Old Sweetlix tub, tackle box, fishing pole, crawdad trap, rope, net, and a chair.

The crawdad fishing was good today, and they were pulling them in left and right with hot dogs on the line.

Grumpie is an old pro at catching crawdads.

For once, my boy had a fishing buddy who didn't get bored after 10 minutes of fishing.  When they filled the bottom of the Sweetlix tub with crawdads, they called it a day, and considered it a success.

But then Grumpie took it a step further, and helped my son clean and cook all of the crawdads...something I would never dream of doing! Cooking crawdads requires A LOT of work for a little tiny piece of meat.

However, my son was beaming with pride as he recounted the details of eating the gourmet delicacies dipped in butter and garlic salt. I think it makes little boys feel like men when they bring home a meal that was harvested by the sweat of their own brow.

What a perfect day!