July 10
At five in the morning Olezhka and I went fishing. Two rods: a jig head on one, a bottom rig on the other. We cast for an hour - nothing. Around six a boy came over, a couple of years older than Olezhka, also staying at the hotel next door. And that's when it got interesting: for the next hour he pulled out a fish on almost every cast, while we still had nothing.
He wasn't stingy about it - walked us through the whole idea, showed us his setup: an ultralight rod, a cheburashka rig with an offset hook. While we watched he even landed a small pike. He let every fish go.
After a lesson like that we drove off to rebuild our tackle. To Shchuchinsk, to Vobler - the same shop where we'd stocked up the first time. We grabbed 8 and 10 gram jig heads to match our rods. The kid's soft plastics had been dark, so we bought the same.
July 11
The next day we set out even earlier, at four. By six - nothing again. Olezhka had already given up and sat down to finish his sandwiches, and I decided to make a couple more casts. And then I got lucky. A perch, about twenty centimeters. My first catch on a spinning rod in twenty years of trying. We let it go.
Afterward we sat and worked out what had gone wrong. That first hour with the dark soft plastics was wasted - it's still dark out, the water's clear, and the fish can barely see them. And another thing: in the clear water we could see one or two perch following the lure, coming right up to it - and not striking. Which meant the lure was too big for them.
Back into town, this time to Udacha. Smaller-hook jig heads, cheburashkas, small offset hooks, smaller soft plastics. Half of them this time we picked in bright colors - for the dawn light. We also bought a Gunki GK-2000 reel to move to a lighter setup. It's a budget reel, but one of the best we own.
July 12
Morning, back to the pier by five - so as not to waste the window while the light's still low and the fish can't see the lure well. But this time I dropped the ball: Olezhka dressed wrong for the weather, shorts and a t-shirt. He got cold fast. We spent an hour on the pier at most and left with nothing.
But the day turned out special anyway. From the pier we headed to the beach, and there Olezhka learned to swim on his back in about half an hour. And he took off right away: first half a meter, then a meter, and by the end he was making it every time - he'd wade in up to his shoulders and paddle all the way back to the sand.
We never did catch a fish that day. But my son learned to swim. A pretty good trade, if you ask me.