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Growing up, I learned quite a few life lessons from my dad. He wasn’t of the Ward Cleaver mold, reclining in his favorite chair at the end of the day to lay heavy philosophical jazz on me, but every once in a while he’d come up with some good ones that have shaped the way I think and have stuck with me to this day.

One such lesson was to never, ever cut the grass when the weather is hot and dry. Okay, I’ll admit it’s not a life changing lesson and I seriously doubt that my dad was the first guy to kill his grass during a hot spell, but regardless, I really like that one because it’s time-tested and it makes sense. Also, the built-in benefit to this rule is it doesn’t put me on the hook to do anything too strenuous when the mercury is pushing 90-degrees or more.

Another good idea is to keep your body well hydrated during such weather, so naturally I’ve always believed this to mean that standing waist-deep in a river or lake with a fishing rod in my hand is simply the safe and right thing to do.

I don’t see folks wading the shorelines of lakes too often any more and I don’t know why this timeless practice went away. From time to time, I’ll see a couple of kids doing it, but I can’t recall the last time I saw an adult wading the shallows in a pair of shorts and old tennis shoes, casting to panfish or bass on a hot summer day. It’s a very efficient and productive way to catch fish, not to mention that it’s a fantastic way to beat the heat and have a tremendous amount of fun.

Over the weekend, my neighbor and I decided it’d be a good idea (because of the heat, you understand) to hydrate ourselves in the cool waters of the St. Croix River. We did some wet wading and caught a respectable number of smallies with our fly rods. Every once in a while, usually while experiencing the euphoric state one feels shortly after catching a fish, one of us would remark how comfortable the air felt, and how wading the river couldn’t be beat on a hot day.

When I do happen to see a couple of kids biking to a nearby lake with their rods and reels lying across the handlebars, it always puts a smile on my face. It is a sight that is innocent by nature, and it reassures me that there are kids out there with simple intentions, good imaginations and a love for the outdoors and fishing.

Without fail, every time I wade a lake or river my thoughts and memories race back in time and I am transported again to my own childhood. A time when the sounds of cicadas and yellow grasshoppers filled the air and the summers were seemingly endless, a time when all a kid really needed on a hot July or August day was a rod and reel, a cool lake and a good friend to fish with.

Dan Brown’s weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankies Bait and Marine in Chisago City and St. Croix Outdoors in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.

Dan Brown is a director at the Chisago Lakes Achievement Center in Chisago City. In addition, Brown is a fly casting instructor and trout fishing guide at Seven Pines Lodge in Lewis, WI. Recently Brown was featured on Ron Schara’s Minnesota Bound and ESPN II’s Backroads with Ron and Raven, as well as KSTP channel 5’s Eyewitness News Morning Show. He is a Taylors Falls resident and can often be found on the area lakes, trout streams and the St. Croix River.

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