These memories last a lifetime…

This was long over due but me and my grandparents (who taught me to fish as a child) have been trying to find a day to go out on the boat for a while. Everyone leads busy lives and if you don’t make something the top priority it ends up never happening.

I was finally able to take out my 82 year old grandparents this last Sunday. This was a truly special special experience for all of us. The best part, this special experience had little to do with the fishing, which I must mention was exceptionally better than I expected.

I drove out from the cities to meet them at a lake near Hutch. My grandpa barely walks but we were able to get him in the boat (this was our biggest worry) and it wasn’t as difficult as we thought it might be.

Time of the water with my Grandparents has always been priceless and yesterday was a reminder of how I had forgotten this. It took me right back to fishing with them as a young kid. At one point my grandpa was kinda staring off and I was trying to ask him something till he snapped out of his stare. He said to me, “Sorry, this is just really great to be outside and be able to think like this, I don’t really get to do that anymore.” That one little sentence right there made my whole day. If you can, try to get out with your loved ones for 1) it is always memorable 2) you never know how many days any of us have left on this earth

For the fishing part, we pulled fatheads on spinners in 8′ of water and the fish were chomping, in 4 hours we kept 4 nice eater walleyes and let maybe 25 smaller ones go and lost a few stories at the boat We also caught some nice pike. Let me tell you this….gramps and grams still have it! What a awesome day it was. Just thinking about it now I sit here smiling.

Here are some pics:

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Wish I could of been able to do this with my grandparents. Looks like you will remember this day for a long time!

Very awesome! My grandparents always took me fishing! Especially my grandpa, started taking me when I was around 3, once I turned 16 and got a boat, then I took him! Priceless memories! I was privileged to take him fishing for his last time when he was 89, even though at the time we didn’t know it, it was very special. Catch a mess of sunnies and have a fish fry! Something I continue on now that he is gone. Great story Evan!

Cool.! You are a good grandson, an there smiles tells the story. Hope you can get them out another time or 3 this summer. Good Luck. … rrr

man that brings back memories for me!! thank you!!
next time out and if you have the ability to record video and sound,do it,you wont regret it,when the time comes and they are gone from this life and you are down and out,play it back,it will always bring a smile,and of course a tear or two.

Good man and a great thing to include them in on. You never know how much time they have left, or you for that matter.

Evan, well done and thanks for the reminder!

Thanks for sharing what was truly an awesome moment in time. Your so right, we can never spend enough time with those we love, especially those that love fishing

Great post. Great smiles.
Great job.

Best post I have seen in a long, long time!!!

Thanks for sharing.

That’s what it’s all about. Thanks for sharing, truly awesome

Evan Pheneger wrote:

At one point my grandpa was kinda staring off and I was trying to ask him something till he snapped out of his stare.

Great story Evan!

The above reminded me of an image burned into my mind. The last time I had Dad on Winni, he had that same stare that I caught out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t say anything, I let him feel the moment knowing it was likely to be his last time on the lake he went to for the better part of 70 years.

It’s not just “take a kid fishing”, take a big kid fishing!

Best post I’ve seen on a forum in a long time. Paying respect to our family members and friends who are aging, like we all are, is understanding where we come from. And hopefully understanding where we are going and where we’ll end up.

This is the stuff that’s sorely missing in the overly pitched, marketed with product pushers that have diseased and infected the outdoor community. It’s so refreshing to see this kind of stuff vs guys in billboard boats, posting pic’s and pimping certain baits, boats, motors, electronics, rods, reels, line, etc as being the only way to catch fish, BORING, BORING, BORING!

Thanks for posting up the good stuff!

Props to you and hats off for honoring your grandparents!

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after” HDT

Thanks for the comments everyone. I am no saint or model person, but I appreciate the kind words and I do have a TON of respect for my grandparents and the family culture the instilled in their kids and grandkids. My grandpa served in the military and then the state senate and always loved serving all the way from his country down to his farming neighbors. And through all that, my grandma was his rock. Like I said, honoring them like this was LONG over due. It makes me want to go fishing with them every time I go now. While that isn’t super feasible, it does make you really appreciate the times you get to go with them.

TBH, going into this I wasn’t really expecting to get a ton out of it and thought it would be more appreciated experience for them then for me. Well I know they did enjoy it, boy was I wrong in thinking I wouldn’t get much out of it. Its amazing what a trip out onto the lake to fish can do.

BK, it was that same look you are referring too, you were just smart enough to let him continue to think and not open your big mouth and bug him like I did

Basseyes, I have always loved that HDT quote (though its argued he wasn’t the first one to say it). I love it enough that it has been in my corporate email sig for the last few years. Originally I put it in my email sig to mock all the cooperate mumbo jumble that everyone puts in their sigs, but I just love it so much I left it