My kids love fishing at my brother’s pond in Idaho every summer.
Fishing at my brother’s stock pond in Idaho is not your ordinary fishing experience. In fact, calling it “fishing” might be a little generous. It’s more like youth sports where everyone gets a trophy. Every kid catches a fish. And the competition is less about whether you’ll catch something and more about who can catch the biggest one.
There are plenty of fishing rods available, but my kids enjoyed the challenge of catching fish with the net. They would lean over the edge of the dock, sprinkle fish food on the surface and wait patiently with the net. It’s part fishing, part strategy, and part chaos when they catch the fish and pull it on the dock with a side of giggles and screams.
Every day we were at my brother’s house, I would catch them on the dock or shoreline, making a plan. They’d catch some fish and move on with another activity and then make their way back to the dock later in the evening. It’s amazing how a pond, a few nets, and a bunch of kids turn into one of the highlights of the trip.
This year, Hunter took the trophy. His fish was large enough that someone ran to grab the scale – he managed to catch a fish weighing over four pounds…with a net! I’m not sure whether that makes him an especially skilled fisherman or just patient, but either way, it was an impressive catch.
When they weren’t fishing in the pond, they were often swimming and kayaking in the pond or making up some game or competition that usually had me laughing.
My kids were made for water. Traditionally, that is a swimming pool or lake in Arizona – but ponds in Idaho are just as fun!
