The One That Didn’t Get Away

2 posted on July 2, 2010

POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Childhood Memories, Family

The last time the girls were up in Michigan my Dad gave them a couple of my old fishing poles and a few pieces of tackle. Chloe has been wanting to go fishing in one of the ponds near our house but, alas, she wasn’t born to the most outdoorsy dad in the world. But I figured that every kid needs to have memories of going fishing with their dad. So yesterday I took the poles and headed out to the pond with Chloe.

I honestly didn’t hold out much hope for catching anything. For one thing, I wasn’t sure if there ever were much fish in this little pond. Plus, we were fishing with just a few lures on an old fishing pole and I had no idea if I was even using the right tackle for whatever was in the pond. However, I assured myself that it was more about the memory of going fishing with dad than actually catching something.

We had been fishing for about 25 minutes or so when I told her it was time to go. And then, “Dad! I think I caught something!” I thought she had maybe just hooked some seaweed but then I saw the pole jerking and knew she had something on the line.

She reeled in for a few seconds and then I saw the fish splash out of the water. It looked big! I grabbed the pole and helped her reel it in. Now I’m starting to worry that the line we had might break. We managed to get the fish on shore. Chloe had caught her first fish and it was a pretty nice one (I say that out of my extremely limited fishing experience).

After a few minutes of coaxing (Ewwww, gross! It’s all slimey!) I finally managed to get Chloe to hold her catch so I could take a picture:

We threw the fish back in and headed home. Chloe was pretty proud of herself for reeling in her first fish and I was just thankful that God showed a little mercy on a Dad who didn’t have a clue what he was doing! Someone commented on my Facebook status and said, “You’re the only man I know who’d rather paint fingernails than go fishing.” Ok, that’s not entirely true…let’s just say that maybe I can be good at both.

Do you have memories of fishing with your dad when you were a kid?

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 11:46 am and is filed under Blog Posts, Childhood Memories, Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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July 2, 2010

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1 cyril scott jones said:

Great story Brad! Ever need outdoor tips just call and if I am at Target trying to pick out the right type of fingernail polish I will call you.

Seriously, being a Dad has to be the coolest job, ever.
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July 2, 2010

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2 Mitch said:

So awesome! Congrats to Chloe for catching something. Way to go Dad for making the attempt to take her

That’s something I need to make sure I do in a couple of years. I need to take my boys fishing some time. Maybe I can bring Grandpa and Uncles along to help.
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July 2, 2010

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3 Dale Best said:

Hey Brad! The thing I love about this post is the work you did on the photos. The way you filtered the picture of Chloe holding the fish looks like it was taken 40 or 50 years ago.

Great work!
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July 3, 2010

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4 JamesBrett said:

i fished a lot with my dad when i was young. but one of my fondest memories is from after my dad left. there was a guy at my church who knew my father was gone, and he offered to take me fishing — probably twice a month. so, to me, fishing reminds me of the love, care, and concern of fellow christans.

glad your daughter was blessed with a big fish…. despite your knowledge of the subject.
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July 8, 2010

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5 Kiel said:

Don’t worry, my Dad isn’t a big outdoors guy either. My Grandma always took us fishing and my Mom and Aunt Suzi would take us camping.

Nice to see you having fun with the photo settings.