There seems to be one predictable trend being set in this spring’s weather – it’s unpredictable! One Monday we are buried in more than a foot of new snow and the following Monday we are sweating to temperatures in the high 80s and in some cases 90.

I can remember a lot of springs that were summer-like early and then turned cold about the first part of June. The one sure thing about spring is that there will be some open water and some fish being caught.

When my wife and I were first married we would quite often go bullhead fishing with her mom and dad. My father-in-law always seemed to know where they were biting, and we usually never had to go too far from Twin Lakes.

We fished Lower Twin, State Line Lake, Pickerel Lake and various ponds and creeks in the area. There was one pond in particular that my boys still talk about, even though they were very young at the time. They still remember those &uot;Giant&uot; yellow-bellied bullheads we caught on that warm spring evening.

Fishing can have a lasting effect on kids, and if they are exposed to the sport at an early age they will have a sport that can stay with them their whole life. Kids aren’t as concerned about what species they are catching, just that they are catching something.

This is the time of year when a mess of bullheads in the frying pan can be mighty tasty.

There doesn’t seem to be as much interest in bullheads as there was years ago. Part of that may be because the number of bullheads in our lakes seems to have become less.

I have a theory about that, and it is only that. The amount of rough fish (carp, sheephead, etc.) has increased dramatically over the years and a lot of the lakes seem to have more algae than they did years ago.

I think that today’s farmers are more aware of the impact run-off can have on our streams and are taking steps to prevent this. The set-aside program that the state has for prairie grass has helped our habitat and can only be a plus in preventing runoff in our lakes and streams.

I know that Lake Tetonka, which used to have large numbers of the finger-sticking critters, now seems almost hard-pressed to produce an occasional &uot;whiskered one.&uot;

I do think that to get a kid hooked on fishing he has to be able to catch something. I’ve said it many times that if you are family fishing and just starting the kids out you have to let them fish for what is &uot;catchable&uot; first, then you can mold them into little Babe Winkelmans later.

Last year’s &uot;Take A Kid Fishing&uot; day was one of the better ones I can remember. It seems as if everyone was catching fish. You could see the excitement in the kids and the fish didn’t have to be that big to generate excitement.

There is plenty of fishing right here in our own back yard and I guess sometimes we tend to overlook what we have right here in front of us.

I have actually admitted in this column that I have actively sought out and eaten the &uot;wily&uot; bullhead. There were times when I wouldn’t admit to actually liking the fish, but when the band aids would appear on my fingers each spring you would have thought someone could have figured it out.

As a kid I had my share of stinger holes in my hands, but that was nothing compared to one event I witnessed.

While sitting in the waiting room at the hospital as a sick relative was being seen by the doctor, two boys came walking in. One of the boys was holding the side of his neck, and as we looked a little closer we saw that he had a bullhead sticking out of the side of his neck.

It seems his friend had a bite and when he whipped the fish out of the water it struck the other boy in the neck and the stinger went all the way in. He was too scared to pull it out so up to the hospital he went. The boy was O.K. but the bullhead’s fate was uncertain.

I’ve had to take a few hooks out of bullheads for the kids, but as far as I know that doctor is the only one that’s ever had to take a bullhead out of a kid.

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Once again we should take time to remember our brave service men and women who are serving our country.