Labour Day Weekends had traditionally been a special time that I’d spent fishing with my Dad since childhood… but all that changed when I lost him to cancer just before our sacred weekend back in 2009.
Since then, I have always made some kind of concerted effort to celebrate his life around that weekend in a way that was always very meaningful to him… either moose scouting, or by going fishing!!
This year was no different… call me crazy if you will, but I packed up a small remembrance urn of his ashes that I hold very dear, and I took ‘him’ fishing with me… just me and him… just like the old days.
I decided to go to what has become my favourite playground (and worksite)… Lake Nipigon and the Upper Nipigon River. And, I decided I would use a fishing rod & reel I had given him for Father’s Day just a few years before he passed away.
My Mom had insisted that I have the rod when she was allocating certain of my Dad’s belongings to my siblings and I, and to the grandkids.
So off ‘we’ went… arriving to a moderately fresh north wind on Lake Nipigon to troll for some Lake Trout, and cast for some Specks (Brook Trout) which he always loved to do.
I remember so many trips my Dad took me on to Bernard Lake near Sundridge, Ontario where my Uncle Mike had owned a cottage… it was a lake blessed with some nice Brookies, Rainbow Trout and some sizeable Lakers… and it’s where my passion for fishing for them truly developed.
Catching a Nipigon Laker wasn’t all that difficult, but I was glad to get out of those building waves and head back into the shelter of the River to try to catch a nice Brookie to honour my Dad.
Speckled Trout have a habit of being pretty finicky biters at times – and that day was one of them – but I was determined.
I do recall looking towards the Heavens and asking both God, and my Dad, for a little ‘divine intervention’ considering the importance and meaning of this particular excursion.
In my life, I have found that ‘Prayers of Intention’ are often answered… and so it was… after a dozen or so casts, my Dad’s old fishing rod felt the hard and not-so-subtle smash of a decent Brookie.
Landing the fish, I felt a certain sense of accomplishment and excitement as I often had with my Dad on many of our fishing trips… this time just a little more special as this chunky 20 inch Brookie would have been my Dad’s biggest… and it was caught on his fishing rod and I posed it on the bump board alongside his urn… a new Personal Best for him in a way.
Even though I’m in my senior years, I still feel the passion of the child who has loved fishing all these years, and I’m grateful to have had a Father, and friend, that I loved fishing with more than anyone else.
Thanks for a truly great day out ‘on the water’ Dad… my Guide!!
