Today, I am a proudest parent on Earth.

It was a beautiful day outside and I wanted to spend some time with Michael. I realized he'll be 4 in a few months and one of my goals was to get him to land a trout on a fly while he was still 3. The kid is no stranger to fishing, he's caught quite a few fish, starting off with a bluegill on his 2nd birthday, and a trout a few weeks later, but those were on spinning gear and worms. We spent last summer slamming bluegills and bass on hoppers  with a 4 weight and he can almost cast a fly rod now.

It was in the mid 40s today, which feels like Florida compared to the weather we've been having, so I decided to give it a go with him. We hit the kiddy pool at the Little Lehigh because it's very easy to catch trout there, and I was sure he wouldn't last too long because he has the attention span of a cardbox box these days (which pretty much all 3 year olds do!).

15 casts and 30 attempts to get him to stop throwing rocks in the water later, we hook into the first fish and he starts working the reel. It was a wild brown which jumped like three times as he reeled it in. The look on his face was priceless. He did a great job, and slowly backed up while reeling until I netted it. I was surprised he didn't want to touch it, but I still managed to hold it up, snap a quick pic, and let it go.

I then threw on a woolly bugger and we quickly got into a rainbow, which he also brought in really quick (unfortunately a little too quick because it took a tiny bounce off a rock). Since it took a little smack, I didn't want to take it out of the net, but I did let him look at it for a few seconds before sending him on his way. Luckily, he was totally fine.

He then wanted to rush off to see his cousins so we packed it up. As we were walking back, I said "Michael, you know you are now a member right?"

"Member of what, daddy?"

"Member of the Men's club, because you caught your first fish on a fly."

"Oh wow Daddy. So I'm a big man like you now?"

"Yes buddy. I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks daddy. I love you so much. Thank you for taking me fishing."

"I love you too, and don't worry, we'll be doing a lot more fishing."