He started me at a young age. I was five the first time we chased trout. I was the carrier of equipment most of that first year. He was the teacher, and I was the pupil. Almost every cast, he explained where he was casting and why. He would ask me where to cast the next hole. I had to explain why I picked the specific area to target.

“Being quiet while fishing” is not just an old wives’ tale. Stomping on branches and being heavy footed were quickly corrected.

We would get our limit each time we went out, and then stop fishing. There was no catch-and-release season back then. My dad did not harvest little fish. He called it getting your money’s worth. We needed to feed eight people with our catch.

He thought it important to be proud of what we caught and often stopped at the local gas station on the way home to show off the “monsters.” We always had a crowd of kids watching when we cleaned the fish on the picnic table in our yard.

The stomach contents always delighted the onlookers. The kids were taught about stockers and natives. They would guess what they thought each fish was. The guesses were made by the wear on fins and tails. The natives or long-term carryovers had orange flesh and the stockers light pink or white.

My pupil-and-teacher phase was never completed. He left us in 1967. There are days now that I have yearned to fish with him as my equal.

I think his teachings stuck with me. When I go with a young angler and their parents these days, I practice where to cast and why with them. I also don’t try to dissuade them from harvesting.

I say that if the DNR thought harvesting big trout injured the trout population, they would modify the regulations.

Make those lessons simple for new anglers. They will get bored if you make it too complicated. Don’t get tunnel vision with a fly or a spinner or worm. My father had a bamboo fly rod on which he used worms exclusively. Let them feel the pulse on the end of the line.

If you enjoy trout fishing, you’ll find suggestions for locations and techniques in every issue of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.