Look at his tackle

Monday, my day off work and the day I call my folks in the UK, always have a good laugh and catch up on the family. I don’t get to talk a lot to Dad because now he has retired he likes to go fishing at every opportunity, keeps him out of trouble even if he likes to wade in naked after his rod!

Mum told about their long time neighbor Don who recently passed away, Mum and Dad went to the funeral and drove back in the car with Don’s sisters. Obviously everyone was somber but the conversation got around to fishing. Mum mentioned that Dad cannot go past a fishing tackle store without going in and buying something.

“If he gets any more gear he will need to get an articulated truck,” she said.

One of the sisters mentioned that surely he didn’t have that much stuff.

“You should see his tackle,” Mum replied.

The driver of the car looked at her, “Do you realize what you just said?”

After a few seconds it sunk in and Mum said everyone in the car was cracking up laughing, “It certainly lightened the mood,” she told me.

Now I know where I get it from!

Naked fisherman

I phoned my parents as I do every week, Mum told me about Dad’s latest fishing trip. Now he has retired Dad has joined several fishing clubs and gets to fish when ever he wants and really enjoys himself. He apparently has tons of equipment and if isn’t fishing spends his time in the fishing tackle store.

On his latest trip he was trying out a new bait alarm, which when fitted to the fishing rod, alarms and indicates when a fish takes the bait. After a short while on the lake the alarm sounded and he went to grab the rod, but the fish swam so hard it pulled the rod into the water and snagged it on some reeds across the lake. Try as he might Dad couldn’t get the rod back; he tried hooking it with his other rod and line to no avail.

For some reason he decided that he would go into the lake and retrieve the rod himself, so he stripped off and waded into the lake. He told me;

“…when the cold water reached my bum I realized if I went in any further I would have a heart attack as it was so cold…”

so he got out and called his brother who came and helped him get his rod and equipment back.

Mum was flabbergasted when he related his latest fishing escapade and told him he was lucky no one else was about to see him;

“There were a couple of guys fishing across the lake when I went in, but they soon left,”

he told her. Mum scolded him telling him he was 72 years old not 27 anymore.

A little while later they were making the bed and as Mum was putting the sheet on the bed, she asked Dad if he went into the lake where his wet underpants were, Dad replied that they weren’t wet because he had stripped off completely. Mum had to leave the bedroom and Dad told me she was in the hall crying from laughing so hard.

As they recounted this on the phone I too was laughing so hard, in fact all three of us were crying, I haven’t laughed so hard in a while.

I forgot to ask if Dad caught any fish that day.