Happy Fathers Day

   This may be late but bloggers are fathers too. I’ve been writing this article for 2 weeks now. I’ve been busy lately. Fathers Day is for that though slow down and go see dad. Finding something for dad can be tricky. Mom is easy, just buying a sappy card and maybe some flowers and she’s happy. Mostly the gift is just to see the kids or grandkids. Dads are different. They don’t want sappy cards, they aren’t supposed to sniffle.

   Moms are the caregivers. They patch the scrape on your knee and give it a kiss and you’re back in action. Dads are the adventuregivers, fishing, hunting, camping, golfing, hiking, catching a ball game or just going on a Sunday drive. For knees it’s just rub some dirt on it and quit whining. But oh those adventures, those are what memories are made of. The most memorable are when something good or bad happens. As long as nobody gets hurt everyone involved remembers what happened for a lifetime. So the best thing to get Dad is an adventure. Probably the easiest adventure for most offspring to procure is a fishing charter. The prices vary greatly with deep water fishing going for $400-$600 per day to a perch or walleye charter for ½ that. I guess it depends on what price you put on your memories. A good place to start is on my link page, go to the DWF link and look for charters on their page. I know George Cini and he’ll put you on fish even if it takes a lot of moving around. Depending when you go you may not catch a monster but you’ll definitely have a great adventure. Just remember the guides could be fathers too so schedule accordingly.

   I was on a father-son adventure not long ago. It was an impromptu trip that just came together. Someone had expressed interest in catching a certain type of fish and before we knew it the 4 of us were sitting under the 7 Mile Bridge of the Florida Keys fame. The bridge is halfway between Key West and Miami and is an early season tarpon spot. The dad and son took the first shift in the back of the boat, sipping beverages and fishing with live bait. My buddy Mark and I were relegated to the front of the boat with casting rigs that cut out drinking of any kind. The live baiters were having a ball catching all kinds of fish including a master angler mangrove snapper.

   Finally after 2 hours of casting and reeling and casting and reeling the sands in the hour glass drained out and it was our turn in back with live bait and unlimited beverage. The captain set us up with pin fish, dancing in front of the hungry fish below. About 3 sips into our watch I heard a loud splash 50 feet from the boat. I looked over to see a big tarpon 8 feet in the air trying to spit the son’s lure. “I think I got one” he says and without hesitation hands over the rod to his dad. It seemed natural at the time; we all knew Pops wanted to catch a tarpon. He even grew a beard that made him look like Hemmingway, we were in the keys. However this was a fish of a lifetime, over 6 feet long, 135 pounds and taking line out like a patriot missile.

   I didn’t think anything of it until I saw the video that the communication between father and son is often silent. It’s could be just a gesture, a look or a grunt nothing sappy or emotional. Without asking the son handed off the rod, helped put on the rod belt and made sure the rod was in properly. The son held his dad up when the fish tried to do an end run around one of the bridge trestles and at the last second backtracked to the other side, causing the guide to slam the motor in reverse, all the while holding up a light so they could see in the pitch dark night.

   It was like a chapter out of The Old Man and The Sea. Akin to a boxing match between man and fish, back and forth until the guide lifted his hand from the water and the bimini twist looked like a bowl of spaghetti in his hand. You never know when an adventure might happen and memories will be made.

Get Outdoors Downriver!