The weather this weekend in Eastern Iowa was, dare I say, perfect. Sunny skies with temperatures in the upper 60's. It just doesn't get much better than that. My son Chase has been begging me to take him fishing the past several weeks and on Sunday, we finally grabbed our poles and hit the water.

Our destination this week was Pinicon Ridge Park in northern Linn County near Central City. The Wapsipinicon River runs through it and there are a number of great spots to stop and fish. Our poles hit the water at around 9:30 am and we were off. Let the fish come to us!

They didn't. We didn't have so much as a nibble for hours. It tested Chase's patience and mine too, to be honest. Rarely is fishing catching a fish with every cast, but this was definitely a slow day. But we saw plenty of other interesting things including an eagle nest, huge turtles sunning themselves on shore, and even a snake.

We eventually doubled back to a spot we'd tried before and wouldn't you know it, we finally landed a few. They were small bluegills and crappie but hey, we were happy to just see fish! Chase landed the top fish of the day, a decent sized crappie. He was happy with it. We released it so he/she could grow bigger.

Ryan Brainard
Ryan Brainard
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Even though we didn't catch enough to eat fish for dinner, we concluded it was a successful first fishing trip of the year. No trophies. Just lots of great memories.

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