Kickin’ It Old School…With Dad.

By Brian Smith – Fishidy Founder

I’d say the year was 1990, my father had just moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from a small town in western PA. We left the life of small streams and trout to the fertile waters of the Susquehanna River and Smallmouth heaven. When we started fishing for smallies, we had little equipment or knowledge about them, we had five-foot ultralights and a few rattletraps we threw in the water. We focused on the time spent together just having a good time fishing. The joy of taking some old shorts and sneakers and walking into the water in search of the largest smallmouth we could catch on 4ld test. The time was classic, memories that will never be forgotten.

There are so many crazy memories, but here’s a few that my dad and I would like to share.

We were fishing into the later part of a summer night, the sun had set and the darkness began to take over. I hear ‘Hey Brian, head to shore’ and I responded, ‘Sure thing Dad’ and began to walk to shore. As I made my way to dry land, I began to think how funny it would be to play a joke on the old man, so I squatted down into the water so only my head was above water and waited. My father, notorious for ‘this is my last cast’ and then 15 casts later actually leaving, made his way to shore. By this time, it was dark, hard to see the end of the five-foot ultralight. He got about half way in and yells ‘Brian, where you at’, playing along with the joke, I didn’t say anything. ‘Gosh darn it Brian, where you at’. Still playing along, didn’t say anything. And a third time ‘Dang it boy, stop messin’ with me’ and right about that time, he walks right beside me and I tap him on the back with my ultralight and jumped out at him. I thought he was going to have a heart attack, and boy did I get cussed out!

Another great memory is when the old man hooked a real nice smallie on a rattletrap. (Remember, we were using ultralights and 4ld test). This smallie comes right at him, swimming faster than he can reel. He was standing in waist-high water as I watched him reel as fast as possible, and suddenly I hear. OUCHHHHHHH! And he starts bouncing around. I’m about 30 feet from him and I yell ‘Dad, what’s wrong’. He responds ‘get over here boy’, and I ask ‘why, what’s wrong?’ He responds again, ‘hurry get over here’, I question him again ‘what’s wrong with you’. He responds ‘This fish just swam between my legs and hooked me with one of the treble hooks and he is really pissed!’ I stop in my tracks, hysterical laughter, almost falling completely in the water as my pops bounces up and down trying to get the fish off the hook and the hook out of the inside of his thigh. He finally got the fish loose, but the hook, well it stayed until he could pull it out with some nettle nose–good times.

Now we’ve graduated to a bass tracker, seven-foot baitcasters and 8 – 12 lb test. It’s still great to stand on the boat and fish with my father, but there’s something about the old days. We still have some of the same traditions, when we hear Alan Jackson’s song I Don’t Even Know Her Name we have these amazing days on the water, it doesn’t seem to work if we just play the track on the CD player or mp3. We also still love our smallmouths, we’ve moved from only understanding how to fish with a rattletrap to all types of methods (different blog post, different time). We’re able to travel and take trips together, but I guess the best thing is chilaxin’ with my dad on the boat. I mean, when it comes right down to it, isn’t that a big reason we all fish? Spend precious time with our family and friends? Brag a little about who caught the biggest bass or punk the one that got skunked for the day?

At Fishidy.com, we love to fish, but we love to spend quality time with our friends and family… And when the two meet, we’re happy campers!

Hope you all had a nice, relaxing Father’s Day weekend – and you caught some fish!