My Father was'nt a fisherman in the way that I call myself a fisherman, or the way someone else would call me a fisherman. I call myself a fisherman not by occupation, but by pre-occupation. Fishing is my passion. It is what I devote much of my free time to doing and I pour myself into it always.
My Father had his own passions, the first of which was his family, and it was this passion that my Father devoted himself to. My Father worked his full-time job, overnight, driving a delivery truck for H.P. Hood. He also worked several other seasonal jobs through out the year, and some how he managed to find time to sleep.
I asked him once, when I was a little boy, why he worked so much, and he said simply, "That he wanted his kids to have all the things that he did'nt have and to do that he had to work quite a bit". So my Father was away from us quite a bit working, but it always seemed like he was there when we needed him. All his hard work left little time for pleasures such as fishing.
He had a boat before I was born and it was then that he fished. His old fishing rods hung in our basement for years gathering dust until one day when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I asked him about the fishing rods as I had never known him to fish. So he told me about the old rods, and the boat he had, and how he used to go fishing all the time with a buddy of his named Al Houston. My Father told me they fished around South Boston near Castle Island and the Sugar Bowl, and how he used to fish from the pier at Castle Island as a boy. Southie was where he grew up. He said that he had not been fishing in many years.
It was then that I asked him if he would take me fishing someday, and he said he would when he could find the time. I remember nagging him unmercifully for a long time until one day he told me that we would go fishing this coming Saturday. I don't think I slept much after that, I was just so excited to be going fishing with my Dad.
Early that Saturday morning, we blew the dust off those old rods, the rods still equipped with old Penn Squidder reels and still wearing the old nylon fishing line from so many years ago. My Dad loaded me and my little brother and those old rods into the family station wagon and we were off.
Our first stop was Neponset Bait and Tackle as it was on the way to Southie and that was where we were going fishing. There we picked up some new hooks, sinkers and a box of seaworms, who did'nt look as happy to be going fishing as I was, and off to the pier at Castle Island we went to drown some seaworms.
My Dad rigged those old rods and baited the hooks for my brother and I. We fished the pier for a little while, a few other people were fishing close by and having about the same luck as us....Bad. All the while my Dad was telling us stories about growing up in Southie and all the great fun he had fishing there.
We then walked over to the Sugar Bowl and fished for a while, but fish just were not to be on that cool Fall day as a slow drizzle satrted. We walked back to the car, stopping at the old Sullivans take-out stand for something to eat. I did'nt care that we had'nt caught any fish, I was just happy to be fishing with my Dad.
Years later, after catching my first keeper bass, at age 34, (I had just started fishing for stripers), I proudly showed it to my Dad. I think that was the 11 year old boy in me saying "look Dad, look what we caught", just as if we had caught it together.
My Dad has been gone just over two years this past May and that fishless day all those years ago has come to mean so much more to me with each passing year. I think of it often, just as I think of my Dad often.
The last time that I saw my Dad before he passed away, I was loading up my fishing gear for an early season striper trip. There he was, standing in the door just shaking his head, laughing at me. Laughing because he knew I was going off to do something that I really had a passion for. I like to think that he knew that because I believe that he had everything to do with it. All because of that one fishless day. Thanks Dad.
Happy Father's Day to all of you, and make sure you take the time to take your kids out fishing while you can, make memories and enjoy the time you have together while you have the time.
"BigFish"
