Re: The man who taught me how to fish is gone...
Thank you all for the kind wishes. It's been a tough few days and a funeral will be Wednesday. It will be a long winter then spring will be here and fishing will be on my mind again. Maybe I can pull out some of the old lures he gave me and repaint them as my brother and I did decades ago.
Just don't use them. You would be devastated to hang one on a stump or lose one to a fish that is simply irreplaceable. There are lures my dad gave me that I remember fondly. I went to
catechism and when I got back he had an old tackle box just for me. He'd pulled it out of god knows where and it was stocked full of old lures. I'd always wanted to fish by myself, but I never could. I remember him handing it to me and saying, "Here you go, B!" with his face lit up like a christmas tree. I was shaking I was so excited when I opened it up and had my own lures to go bass fishing! I just started to cry, it was too much for a little boy to take. When we went to the camp he gave me the old aluminum boat and found an ANCIENT trolling motor for it. That was my boat!! How many 8 year old kids have their own boat and tackle box???? He'd let me go out on my own, staying near the dock of course, but letting me fish and be my own person. I lost some of the lures as a child, but most of them remain in my box. I keep them with me at all times but don't dare use them. I can still see him up on the deck at the house, watching me fish and when I'd catch a bass and yell to him to "Look, dad!" disturbing the entire cove, I can see him standing up and giving me 2 thumbs up yelling "He looks like a nice one, B!" no matter how small the bass was.
When I was 9 I finally bugged him enough to get the old 6hp Mercury out and give it a shot. He kept saying the old engine was dead and would never run again, but every now and then he would walk by and give the old pull starter a slight pull just to make sure the engine wasn't frozen. Now this was a 1969 Merc that hadn't run in over a decade. He drops it over the side of a trash can full of water, gives it a couple of yanks, and after 3 pulls it pops over. Within minutes he had that old engine running. I remember when he said "Lets put this engine on your boat!" and how excited I was. OH MY GOD, I WAS 9 YEARS OLD WITH A BASS BOAT! A REAL BOAT, WITH AN ENGINE AND A TROLLING MOTOR!! I felt like the luckiest kid on the planet. Instead of it taking several minutes to cross the cove I was allowed to fish in, it took mere SECONDS and the boat planed over and got on top just like my dads did! Oh wow was that awesome!
All of this....and my father is still alive and healthy. One day when he is gone I will still have those lures and still have that old aluminum boat. And most importantly, the memories of my selfless dad getting up early in the morning to take his little boy fishing. I surely didn't want to get up at 5am and I know he didn't either, but I wouldn't exchange those memories for the world. The smell of the burnt 2 stroke oil as the old Johnson 70 came to life, seeing the blue smoke surround me and obscure the yellow bug lights on the dock as we backed out of the slip. I grew up smelling 2 stroke oil.
Oh yea, I love you dad.
As a child he bought me a go cart, 2 4 wheelers and 2 boats. I still have the last 4 wheeler and boat, as I can't afford any of my own. My 4 wheeler is 22 years old and looks brand new, and my boat is 20 years old and looks just about new. My father taught me how to care for my stuff, and thanks to him, my stuff has lasted decades.
These are the kinds of memories you need to cherish with your dad.
