Submitted PhotoZane Michael Gowens recently made his first fishing trip with Pawpaw Mike Giles. Though he’s not quite 2, he caught his first bream and bass on the trip.

Zane Michael Gowens was born to fish, though he didn’t yet know it at the time. He donned a Bass Pro Shops pro staff jersey and posed for a photo with his Pawpaw before he ever left the hospital. Fishing just comes naturally to his family. His mother, Chandler Giles Gowens, won the first fishing tournament she entered at the young age of 6 at The Sandy Ridge Bream Tournament for kids only.

His Pawpaw won many youth tournaments and later on won a lot of bass tournaments, too. He enjoyed fishing with his father, Jack Giles, grandfather J. P. Nolen and uncle Jimmy Nolen. Fish catching is in the blood, passed down for many generations.

It should come as no surprise that it comes naturally for young Zane as well. He recently traveled to the West Lauderdale area for his first fishing trip. The youngster is very active and likes anything with wheels on it. He also likes to run, jump, tumble, ride his miniature bike and catch fish, too.

There comes a time in every youngster’s life when they’re introduced to something that has a positive impact on their life. If it is really fun and successful, then it could light a spark of desire that becomes a lifelong passion. I didn’t want to push my fishing passion on Zane too soon, but I was biding my time until I thought he was ready to be introduced to our fine sport.

After hearing my friend Bruce Roberts tell a fishing story about taking his young grandson River fishing and hearing how he caught a lunker bass, I was chomping at the bit to take Zane. Roberts told River, age 5 at the time, he was getting pretty good at this fishing thing, and the young angler never missed a beat.

“Well I ought to be, Pop, I’ve been fishing since I was 2 years old!”

With that in mind, we finally went to a small pond that had a pier, just the ticket for a young angler. The lake has a lot of small bream and a few bass and catfish.

Since Zane was pretty small, I rigged up an old Lew’s Speed Stick rod for him to use because it was light and easy to handle. We bought a few crickets, and I put one on the hook and handed the rod to him. In just a couple minutes, a bream hit it and stole the bait. We put on another cricket, and this time Zane hooked him and quickly pulled him onto the pier.

We were ecstatic and wanted to get a picture with him, but he didn’t know about getting too close to that fish. He just didn’t know what to think about that. We rigged back up, and pretty soon he caught a big ole bluegill, and by then he was pretty intrigued by this fishing thing and wanted to touch the fish’s eye.

We spent about 15 or 20 minutes, and the young angler caught quite a few bream and had a ball. He never lost interest, but we decided to knock around at Uncle Joe’s and ride his UTV for a while. After we got a snack, Zane checked out all of the yard, and it was about time to go, so we went to get the rod and crickets from the pier.

“I want to fish some,” Zane said. He grabbed the rod, and I put a cricket on, and he pitched it into the water. The cricket floated on top a minute, and a dark fish rose up from the depths and sent a wake across the surface as he headed for the wiggling cricket.

“Ka-Whoosh!” The bass struck the cricket, and Zane held on for dear life as the bass tried to take the rod away from him. He fought the bass pretty well, and the rod did the trick and wore the bass down. He led the bass to the edge of the pier, and I reached down and grabbed the first bass of his life.

The celebration began, and we all had a ball taking pictures and watching Zane as he wanted to touch the fish and see what it felt like and what this was all about. Funny thing was that he was attracted to the bass’ eyes and reached out and touched one.

Zane stayed busy touching the fish while we got a few pictures and ended the trip on a high note. We quickly released the bass to grow up some more, and then we headed home for supper. Zane’s first trip to Pawpaw and Grandma’s house by himself was very fun and a memorable trip. Looking back on a similar trip that I took with my own Pawpaw, I realized that I was hooked on fishing back then, and it looks like Zane Michael Gowens is too. Carpe’ Diem!

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comcast.net.