Every year, the first weekend of June is free fishing weekend in Iowa. Well, the kids had been asking when we could go fishing with Grandpa…and we thought this would be a great weekend to take them!

We packed up the van and met mom and dad at Beeds lake in Hampton for the day.

We picked a nice spot under a tree out and got the poles ready. As you can tell by Evan’s face, waiting is hard to do! At this point, he obviously wasn’t aware that most of fishing is waiting…

All ready to catch those fish!

With all the waiting for the fish to bite, Ev got a little restless. I kept trying to convince him to come sit on my lap and wait for the fishies, but he kept wanting to run. This would normally be just fine, but when there is water nearby, I don’t think you can fault me for being a little nervous.

Ellie really got into the spirit though. She loved fishing! I think her favorite part, besides the excitement of actually catching a fish, was catching the minnows to put on the hook. She kept calling them “minerals.”

Ev says “that is where Grandpa and I are taking a rest from fishing.”

We did manage to land a couple good sized fish. This one we caught on Evan’s pole…with assistance from Grandpa who wasn’t sure the kid pole would be able to pull it in! I was trying to reel it in, and make sure Evan didn’t get too close to the water, so the assistance was much appreciated!

After packing it up, we went to check out the dam. What a beautiful little spot!

Free fishing weekend = success. It’s on the calendar already for next summer!