Jackson: Father, son discover the joy of fishing

I have invested a considerable amount of time and energy with Wisconsin guide Billie Heim.

The two main reasons for my affinity for this character is that Heim makes me laugh all the time, and he seems to have a natural talent for finding big fish on Lake Geneva and Lake Delevan.

Such was the case for Dave Wein and son Gabe.

A parent often derives quite a bit of pride when a child comes home with straight-A report card. In this case, it wasn't a report card but rather some hefty smallmouth bass that brought out the oohs and ahhs in the boat.

And according to some of my sources, it's time for the lake's smallmouth to outshine the largemouth bass in numerous sections of this large lake.

Dave Wein and son Gabe live in the northwest suburbs and fish together quite often.

Because I had raved quite a bit about Billie Heim's expertise and on-water fun, Dave hired Billie for an afternoon session, and it resulted in eye-popping strikes from smallmouth bass as well as some other "hot" species, he said.

Dave wanted son Gabe to experience the potential of the excellent angling often experienced on this vast chunk of water. And he did.

On his third or so cast, Gabe felt what can be described as an underwater freight train. Minutes later young Gabe brought in a 3 ½-pound smallmouth bass. Naturally, there were smiles and fist bumps between father and son.

If you're wondering why I write so much about Billie Heim, it's because he represents a down-to-earth, rare breed of guide who is much at home fishing for monster-like red ear sunfish as he is smallmouth bass.

He told me his mission is to make his customers happy, and he allows them to make the first cast rather than hogging the bow position to shoot a lure into a potential hot spot.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.