When a little boy catches some rock bass over the side of a canoe in the boundary waters.... There's a good chance a man is going to end up cleaning some rock bass for the fire grate and brag up how the boy saved the day with his food catch.
Oh yeah! And my dad cleaned a bunch of them. I don't have a little boy, but I do know how that works.
They are fun to catch too.
Speaking of little boys and rock bass, I was fishing up at the north end of Fall back in the Days of Yore with my dog in the boat as usual. Another boat pulled in with a Wisconsin sticker on it to fish the small channel in the entrance to the outflow that I was fishing. Dad and Big Brother were fishing like mad men, throwing big plugs and spoons as far as they could and ripping them through the water, and frequently getting hung on a hidden reef. I was laughing because they weren't going to catch anything that way. This was "my water" and that just wasn't going to work. Meanwhile, Little Bro was at the front of the boat dunking a worm and being ignored by the other two. Of course, he hooked a rock bass after a little while. He was in a honey hole for them, though I doubt Dad realized that.
Anyway, he yelled and howled about his fish, and the other two glanced at him and then went back to flingin' and crankin'. And that's when his rod tip took a hell of a dive straight down. It seemed like a long time after that the kid finally cranked the last two or three turns, and I called over to Dad that his kid in the bow might need some help. They glance over again and then everything turned upside down to get the landing net in the water.
Later that night, I was listening to the Fisherman's Hqtrs Fishing show on WELY radio when they announced the winning fish of the day (and later the week), as a 12# northern caught by a 6 yr old on a rockbass and a worm. I thought that was pretty cool, and I suspect that Little Bro, still gives Big Bro grief about that to this day.
I have never landed a northern that way, though I had a few take after my catch. But that little kid managed it by good luck and hard work. It is a fun memory to this day and I generally don't think well of folks that crowd my honey holes
