Syracuse.com - Toddler fishing poles -- you never know what you're going to catch with them (see photo slide show)

[HuntingNY-News]

There’s just something about a kid holding a fish that he or she just caught on their Barbie, Snoopy, SpongeBob SquarePants or Buzz Lightyear rig.

They’re the kind of fishing pole that makes a youngster’s first or biggest fish memorable.

They’re toddler poles and they come in all themes and colors. These flashy, fishing outfits generally sport plastic, closed-face, push- button reels; 6- to 8- pound monofilament line and sturdy, 3-foot-long rods.

I recently requested that readers send me “cute shots” of children with their toddler poles and I wasn’t disappointed. There’s just something about a kid holding a fish that he or she just caught on their Barbie, Snoopy, SpongeBob SquarePants or Buzz Lightyear rig.

Bottom line: It’s fishing and you never know what’s going to happen.

Take 3-year-old Lillian White, of Otisco, who went out on Otisco Lake recently, fishing with her Dora pole that her grandparents had just bought her.

To everyone’s surprise, the little girl hooked a 23-inch tiger muskie.

“When we looked and saw what was on the line, Lilly screamed and dropped the pole,” said Annette Jones, the grandmother. “Bapa (grandpa) grabbed it quick and had to bring it in ... and it broke the net. The teeth went right through it.”

Then there was Kate Putman, 7, of Cicero, who on Memorial Day was fishing with her Barbie pole off the family’s dock on the south side of Oneida Lake on Memorial Day for perch, sunnies and bluegills.

“My wife and I really didn’t think much of it until she started screaming that she had something big that she couldn’t even reel in,” said her father, Jason Putman. “Turns out she had hooked this big carp on a little tiny jig with no worm. It ran through our boat hoist, back through the jet ski hoist and was headed up Route 81N when we got there.”

The father said he managed to untangle the fish.

“Meanwhile, all the neighbors were cheering for her,” he said.

Now that’s a summer memory.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog