A Day With Dad
It all began one day back in 1985 ,a youngster then, 5 years old to be exact. I was sitting in the house watching television and I came across a show and I was shocked. There was man holding up a huge bass, every bit of 20pounds, well at least in the eyes of a 5 year old. I started yelling for my dad to look. Of course he came running in thinking something was wrong. I said, " look at that fish, I want to catch one like that dad." He just looked down at me and said, "Son you will get your chance one day." Well the week went buy and I just watched television trying to find some more fishing but to no avail. Then my dad walked in and told to go pack a change of clothes. Wondering why he wanted me to pack a change of clothes, I got up off the floor and went and started packing. Once I got my clothes packed, I walked into the living room and asked dad why he wanted me to pack clothes for, he just looked at me and said, you will see. It was now close to noon time and we had just finished eating dinner and dad look at me and said, lets go. I grabbed my clothes and followed dad out the door towards the truck. He put my clothes in the back of the truck and opened my door. What I saw next made my heart stop beating. My dad had a brand new rod and reel sitting in the seat of the truck. I looked at him and he said go ahead it's yours. I grabbed the rod and reel (zebco 33) and gave my dad a big hug. I sit there at the truck trying to learn how to operate it when my dad said, just wait right now , I will teach you how to use it. So I handed him the fishing pole and he put it in the back of the truck. He lifted me up into the truck and closed the door and started it up. Sitting there in the truck as we were going down the road, I was constantly looking back to see if my pole was still there, and I still do that today. Then the truck stopped, I looked out the window to see a pond, not big maybe 12 acres or so. I opened the door and ran towards the water, my dad stopped me and asked, aren't you forgetting something and then reached me my pole. I stood there and waited on him to get the stuff out of the truck and then we headed toward the water. He said let me show you how to put a hook on your line, he started to wrap and pull the line on the hook as I stood there amazed. He then took a bobber and put it on the line. I was ready to fish, not even knowing how to cast , I was ready. He reached down in the cooler and grabbed a box of night crawlers, got one out and put it on my hook. He said ok, now I am going to teach you how to cast. He placed his hand over mine as I grabbed the pole and he said, ok pull your arm back a little and push that button at the same time, don't let go of the button keep it pushed then bring your arm forward and let off the button. Of course, I let off the button dropping the bait to the ground, he just laughed and said try again. So, I kept on trying and trying and then finally, my bait hit the water. My dad said good, now just leave it there and watch that bobber, when the bobber goes under the water pull your pole. I sit there for about 10mins watching that bobber and nothing was happening. I turned to dad and said that bobber isn't moving dad. He smiled and said, you better look again. When I turned back around I saw my bobber moving up and down. I grabbed my pole and began to reel when my dad said not yet, you have to let the fish take it first. I was standing there with my pole in my hand and watching my bobber, all of a sudden my bobber went under the water and my dad said, pull so I pulled. He said reel it in , so began reeling as fast as I could. Dad said, slow down you don't want to miss it. I began to slow my pace. All of a sudden I saw a fish come up out of the water. My eyes got real big and my dad just laughed and said you just about got him. I kept reeling and finally I could see the fish coming towards the bank, I said look dad he is huge and of course he just said, he sure is son. I finally landed the big bass (only 8 inches) and looked up at my dad said, Dad this is the best day I have ever had. Since then I have been hooked on fishing.