Country singer, Trace Adkins, had a popular song a few year ago titled, “Just Fishin”. In the song he talks about a father fishing with his daughter. He goes on to say she talks about her ballet shoes, training wheels and kittens and all along she thinks they are just fishing. Time spent on the water with your family and particularly your kids is fun when you are catching fish, but there is so much more to the sport than catching.
As my son left for college this year, I know that the time we spend together on the water will be limited from this point forward. I know we will still get out when he can come home and some during the summer, but it is definitely different waking up on Saturday mornings now. While I could sit back and be sad about the how the years have flown by and how we won’t have the ability to go as much together, I am instead really focused on the bond that the sport of fishing has helped us build over the years. We spent many a day working hard to catch a single fish and we had days where we were able to catch many fish, but each time we went we wrote another part of a story that gives each of us some special memory that we will carry with us the rest of our lives.
Through the years I also hope that I was able to impart some of my limited wisdom that will help him to grow up and become a person that cares about others, makes good choices in life and one day becomes a good husband and father to little anglers of his own. I was fortunate to grow up in a family where both of my parents took us on the water and taught us how to crab and fish and I know there were many nuggets of knowledge dropped on me in all of those years that I thought we were “just fishin”.
Andy Pickett
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