Fishing With Dad

I can remember dad waking me up at a horrific hour to get up and go fishing. I remember in my groggy state thinking is he for real? Nobody should have to get up this early on a Saturday. The day that was for sleeping in and relaxing from the tiring long school week. Regardless of what my thoughts were dad was set on going fishing and in turn I had no choice, so off we went into the dark of the early morning to go fishing. He had already loaded up all the gear into the car and just needed me to get dressed and into the car. Once I was in the car, off we went to destinations unknown. Sometimes it was the Seal Beach Pier, where we would freeze until the sun would pop up to give us some warmth. He kept me pacified with hostess raspberry filled powdered sugar donuts. I was happy to sit there and eat them while he hoped to catch Moby dick, or at least any fish.

I can recall how cold and wet everything was on the pier. The moisture in the air was thick and didn’t help at all it just made things feel more miserable. Once the sun came up, I was full of a bit more energy and of course on a sugar high. I was then at that point actually interested in fishing or at least trying to fish. If I remember correctly, we had dead anchovies for bait. A great smell to digest sugary donuts by. I did start to enjoy being outside and at the ocean, the air the water and I was with my dad so how could a guy loose with all that. There was a time that dad’s friend Mike from his work had joined us fishing on the pier. He seemed to be struggling to bring up a fish and it took quite some time before it broke the surface of the water. To everyone’s surprise it was a big crab and just as it was about to be brought over the rial of the pier it let go. It fell back to the water with a huge splash much to the disappointment of Mike, he looked heart broken.

I can’t recall having ever caught any fish out on these trips to the Seal Beach Pier but I remember the time spent with my dad on his grand fishing adventures.