I must confess that for years I have tried my hand at fishing, but the Izaak Walton League would be sure to look the other way if I applied for membership. To be sure, growing up in Wisconsin I did try my luck at some of those beautiful trout streams. But you would have been unwise to wait with a hearty appetite while I tried to catch our dinner. And, yes, my friends and I did go fishing on the nearby Mississippi River. And, yes, we did throw in a line from time to time, but at that age -- our teenage years -- we were far more interested in racing our motorboats up and down the river and jumping the wake of the huge barges and tugboats.

I was not much of a fisherman nor was I the son of a fisherman. But my daughters were a different story, especially when they were quite young. While vaca…