Fishing with my Dad

My Dad loved to go fishing and my Mom loved for him to take us with him,   Was it that she was encouraging a father/child bond?  Something she had been deprived of (her father passed away when she was only 5)  or was it that she was a stay at home mom and probably wanted a few hours peace.  Either way, my brothers and I loved to go fishing with Dad.  One memorable trip was to a “pay lake”.   He had to pay for all of us to get in and we were limited to the amount of fish we could catch.  My Dad loved his gadgets and would spare no expense.  He had this fancy fish finder radar thing and even wore Poleroid sunglasses, because he could see where the fish were.  That particular trip, I had all the luck and the male members of my family had NONE.   I caught the limit for our entire family!  Needless to say, my Dad was, as my daughter would put it, “a little salty”.   He said nothing on the way home.  Then, when we got home, he told me that I had to clean ALL of the fish.  WHAT???? Was he nuts??   I just remember being in the back yard, gutting all the fish, crying the entire time.  I didn’t even like fish!  Eventually, he came out and helped me.  To this day I’m not sure if he felt sorry for me or for the poor fish I was hacking up.  🙂