I figure I have a few years, tops, before my daughter can out fish me. Then I'll know how my dad feels!

Elia was excited as we left the house this afternoon. Her 3 ft long "Dora the Explorer" fishing rod was in the back, along with a big strike indicator and some flies. At just over 2 years old, she is still too young to actually cast the rod, and since I don't own anything resembling bait I have to use the big strike indicator as weight so that I can cast that little rod more than a couple of feet. It turns out that today, I didn't really need it.

We made one circuit of the pond with no fish in sight. Elia was having a great time. She refused to let me carry her pole and insists on talking to every person we run into. Finally, in the back corner of the pond in some really shallow water I spotted a couple of carp moving lazily around. I snatched the "Dora" pole from Elia and snuck into her position with her clinging to my pant legs as we moved through the brush and trees together. We got right on top of one of the fish, and it was a simple flip of the rod to put the fly within a foot or two of the hungry carp. The fish mosied over the fly real casual like, but not quite casual enough. I knew he had the size 12 carp wooley and set the hook! The fish immediately tried to run for deeper water, but I had the drag on the "Dora" reel synched down tight. I quickly handed the pole to Elia and she hung on with two hands while the 3 or 4 lb carp flopped and splashed in the shallows. With only 4-5 feet of line out, and such shallow water the carp had no chance. Elia managed to reel a couple of cranks to bring some line in, but she basically held the rod up high and back up, dragging the carp onto a bed of leaves that marked the shoreline. She peered down at the fish with a huge smile on her face and rushed forward to pet the fish's tail. As soon as her little hands touched the fish it flapped around a bit, splashing Elia with water and causing her to jump back into the bushes! I reached down and took the fly out of the top lip.

"Should we let him go?" I asked her.

She got a real serious look on her face and said "Ummmm....Yeah."

I nudged the carp back into the water and scooped up Elia. At that point I'm not sure who had a bigger smile on their face...the carp for being let go, Elia for catching a fish, or her dad for watching the entire scene play out. Probably me...