A LITTLE MAN’ S TAKE ON A BIG SPORTS WORLD
By Jim Biery
Fishing Buddies
“ Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.” This famous quote is based on the principle of longterm stability by teaching self-sufficiency. The person that taught me this very useful lesson in life is my father.
When I was young, maybe five or six, I heard my father leaving the house very early most Saturday mornings and always wondered where he could be going. I would sneak out of my room and look over the banister leading downstairs until he was out of sight. Later that day, he would come back and I would run to his truck to see where he had been. More times than not, he would pull fish from inside the truck and put them into a tub with water. I was intrigued with how the fish looked and the color of each one. This is when I got hooked( pitiful pun intended) on fishing.
Now, for everyone reading this, fishing is a sport. Try being in direct sunlight, water reflecting the heat, and having to cast 800 to 1,000 times in a single day of fishing. Tell me that isn’ t as much of a pain in the hind-end as burpees!
Once I was old enough to follow my father out of the house in the wee early morning, I began to understand why he arose so early just to catch fish. Have you ever seen a sunrise that offers you every color and nuance a human eye can experience and appreciate? This is what is special about fishing in general. The fact that you can share such a special environment with your best friend and father? Priceless.
Over the years, we have experienced just about everything that could possibly happen when you go fishing. We have fished when it was so cold that the eyelets on the rod would freeze around the line making it difficult to cast. We have been chased by a bull trying to cross a field to get to the next pond to fish. When a curious dog was too close to the action, we had to take hooks out of some very sensitive paws.
Along with all the adventures and mishaps also came life lessons, only at the time I didn’ t realize what my father was teaching me. When you’ re young, you don’ t always focus on what is exactly being said or shown to you. You can’ t fully appreciate the importance of time spent together. There were a couple of times when hanging out with the guys for the night turned into an early morning phone call explaining that I didn’ t feel good and couldn’ t go fishing. I think we all know what the real illness was.( I bet some of you may have felt that way before, too.)
Now that I am older and a bit wiser, I do see what he was hoping I would pick up on. When I would get angry because I missed a big fish, he would try and teach patience. Dealing with adversity comes in handy when your reaching into tree branches to try and get your favorite bait back. When the bites are hard to come by, you have to be determined and focused on your goal of catching a trophy bass.
To show how to overcome pain, my father once had a treble hook get stuck in his forearm. After trying in vain to remove it, he simply cut the line and kept fishing for a couple more hours. Once he got home, he went to emergency care and they cut it out of his arm. My mother just shook her head and wondered about the thought process that went through his head. This would not be a one-time thing she would have to deal with to be sure.
At some point, these lessons became clear to me. Not all at once, but as I went through my ups and downs in life, I began to lean on these principles my father laid out for me. Now when we get the chance to fish together there is only one thing that forces us to reschedule: Mother Nature.
We won’ t dare speak of it out loud but we silently understand that being able to fish together will eventually come to an end. Neither one of us are spring chickens anymore. Because of this I really appreciate how special it is to be able to share this time with my father. It is even more special because the memories and experiences are only shared by us and close family and friends we choose to share stories with. You see, when you blast every event and detail of it all over social media, you lose the uniqueness of the moment and who you experienced it with. It seems everyone has to let the world know everything they do looking for acceptance and validation somehow.
I don’ t need to have thousands of followers or people to“ swipe right” in order to receive confirmation that I did or saw something special. I know that the history I have made with my father – my No. 1 fishing buddy – is very special and will last in our minds as long as we go forward in life and on our fishing trips. Love you, Pops.
33