j.w., my daughter is about 16 months old. I've wondered about when I would take her out on my pondmaster boat at my pond.

If I did take her out, I don't think I could pay attention to much else besides her at this young age for fear of her falling out (life preserver assumed). I'm curious as to what other fathers (or mothers) have done as far as the age at which they've taken their youngsters out on the water.

Having said that, now that my daughter is here, I don't get to go to my pond nearly as much; I live about 55 miles from my pond. My wife and I are working on a second child also.

So a question is: how much free time do you have in total to split between your daughter, pond, fishing other bodies of water, and whatever other things you like to do? For me, I might get one day a weekend at best, and on those days I want to get to the pond/property.

I used to fish other public waters on a regular basis, mostly from the shore and sometimes on friend's boats.

After I got my pond, I mostly lost interest in fishing other waters save a yearly trip or two to Erie, PA for steelhead.

I should add that I never owned a boat prior to owning my pond, and the pond boat is only good for a small body of water.

Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."