Fishing: Father & Son Bonding
Many of my fondest memories - not only as a child, but also as an adult - involve fishing. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and spent most of my summers as a kid in Idaho, where I would fish every day. My favorite kind of fishing is with a fly rod on a freestone river. It didn’t really matter if I caught anything, I simply loved the sound of the river, gear rituals, and the sense of possibility around the next bend.
I’ve had the good fortune to float the middle fork of the Salmon River, to take multiple pack trips into Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness (a/k/a “The Bob”), and fish for salmon on the Katmai Peninsula in Alaska. I hope to make it back to those places, but if I don’t, the memories of those adventures will last a lifetime. Fishing also provided me with another valuable experience - QT with my dad.
We tried tennis, but he would get fed up with my poor attitude. We gave golf a try, but he liked it more than I did, and eventually I started making excuses to not go. But fishing we could both agree on. Since neither of us are very chatty, fishing was perfect since we could be “together”, but we weren’t compelled to maintain a constant conversation. This served us well during certain times of our relationship when we weren’t exactly getting along; these silent adventures helped heal those wounds.
Because of this history, I’ve always looked forward to introducing my son, Cooper, to the joys of fishing. However, it’s one of those situations where I didn’t want to be too enthusiastic for fear the reality doesn’t match the hype. Two summers ago, when he was four, we went out a few times and also hit up the fishing pond at the IL state fair. He had a blast and often asked to go, but his skill level was such that I needed to constantly shadow him, understandably.
This year is completely different. We went out last weekend and he could cast, bait a hook, and hold and release a fish. The only things he needed my help with were removing the hook and untangling his line occasionally. ;) It was so much fun to fish alongside him, instead of over his shoulder, and see his enthusiasm. We went out to Homer Lake yesterday and each caught a bunch of fish. As afternoon slid into evening and the fish stopped biting I was thinking it was time to head out. Right then Cooper turned to me and asked, “Dad, can we go home now?”
We stopped at the Sidney Dairy Barn on the way home for a treat, and I was pretty sure this was one of those perfect summer days that couldn’t get any better. Well, at least until his younger sister learns to fish as well. ;)
