By MICHELLE SWARTZ

After reeling in a fish no bigger than his hand, Tim McGuire wasn't sure what he just caught.

"It's a small bass," said his 9-year-old son, Ian, as he took a closer look.

Admittedly not a seasoned fisherman, Mr. McGuire of Milan could not confirm the type of fish he just caught June 20 in Luna Pier.

"I don't know what it is," he told his son.

But a passerby confirmed the son's guess. He told the father-son duo that it was a silver bass.

"I told you, Dad. I was right," Ian said, smiling.

Ian's passion for fishing started when his father started taking him on fishing outings two years ago.

"Twenty years ago, my grandpa took me fishing. Since then, I haven't done much fishing until I started taking Ian," Mr. McGuire said. "After the first time, that was it from that point on. Ian has been addicted to it ever since."

Ian seems like a natural. He caught a blue gill on his first fishing experience.

"He catches more fish than I do," Mr. McGuire said.

But on this particular day, Ian didn't have much luck.

"I haven't caught anything but a dead fish. I kicked it back into the water," he said.

But Ian is happy to catch any fish, dead or alive. He had his father take a picture of it on his digital camera.

His father was amazed that his son caught a dead fish.

"He hooked it in its face. I don't know how he did that. I've never seen that before," he said as he looked at the picture of the fish on his camera screen.

Mr. McGuire was able to take the day off in order to go fishing with his son last week. However, they fish about three times a week during the summer.

"We come here a lot. But we go to a lot of different places," Mr. McGuire said while throwing out his fishing line into Lake Erie. "He loves to fish."

Ian mentioned he would like to fish year-round.

"Even in the middle of winter, I'm asking my dad to fish," he said.

Smiling, his father answered, "Someday," about the possibility of ice fishing.

Even though they throw back the fish that they catch, Ian looks forward to catching his favorite fish.

"I like walleye and rock bass. I like rock bass because they're shiny and have red eyes," he said.

A tackle box filled with bait helps ensure the McGuires a good day of fishing.

"We usually use night crawlers, but we have all kinds of artificial bait in there," Mr. McGuire said. "But we don't know the secret. It's different from day to day."

Mr. McGuire still is attempting to master the art of fishing.

"I'm not sure where you go to find particular fish. We don't know what we're doing," he said. "We're just happy to be out here. We're happy with whatever we catch."

Although they spent about three hours fishing in the afternoon at Luna Pier last week, the father and son normally fish in the evenings after Mr. McGuire comes home from work.

Even though he acknowledges that he's not the best fisherman around, Mr. McGuire enjoys spending quality time with his son.

"That's the whole idea," he said.