One of my favorite Walt Disney World memories is going on an early morning fishing excursion with my parents. My dad used to go fishing all the time, but in my childhood we never got to fish for bass together, so I planned this as a nice family experience.
We were staying at the Grand Floridian, so it was a quick walk from our room to the dock to meet our fishing boat at 6:45 AM. We were greeted by Dave, who turned out to be a fantastic guide (I highly recommend asking for him!), and soon we were speeding across Seven Seas Lagoon in the morning air. He knew right where he wanted to take us, and we soon found out that the Disney fishing guides all have their favorite spots (and try to keep them secret). Our first place was near the old Discovery Island (not the one in Animal Kingdom, obviously!), and after setting up my dad, my mom and myself with poles and baiting us with shiners, we were fishing!
After twenty minutes or so, we hadn’t hooked anything, so Dave took us around the island to another favorite place, and within minutes, my dad had the first strike! Soon we were reeling them in (and throwing them back, since catch and release is the name of the game), all of us catching huge fish (by our standards). Sometimes two of us were bringing them in at once! Dave kept everything moving – serving us soft drinks, baiting the hooks, casting for us if we wanted, netting our bass, and even weighing them and snapping the all-important photos!
Before our two hours were finished, Dave drove us to another spot, close to the ferry dock at the Transportation and Ticket Center. Here we caught several more, and now we could show them off to the park-goers on the dock. When our time was up, we had caught 18 large-mouth bass! My dad wore his biggest smile of all in our family fish pictures, and we had memories of an experience we’ll never forget (and we still made it to Disney/MGM Studios in time for the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular). By the way, on the next trip, we’re fishing more than once!