Picture This Life

As we embarked on our vacation, Dad and I both agreed that we were going to take more time this trip to fish for pike. Our goal – to break the 30 inch mark. Some 30 years ago Dad hauled a 31 inch pike from the mighty St. Lawrence River in Ontario. Growing up that fish became a thing of myth and legend for Tim and me.

In 2011, I wrote about Tim eclipsing Dad’s 30-year old record with a 34 incher he hauled from the Des Moines River in Iowa.

Sometimes you’re good. Other times you’re lucky. Once in a great while you’re both. And Dad and I were both both on this trip as he caught a 40 incher and I caught at 38 incher. I’ll tell you those fish stories shortly.

For now, though, I’ll bask for a few more moments in the glow of un-mything myths, rewriting record books, and the thrill of landing fish that, from the moment they entered our canoe, became living legends themselves.

In a stretch of 72 hours Dad and I set a lot of things straight. We both landed the biggest fish of our lives, and in the process we put Tim back in his rightful place in the family fishing hierarchy…

At the bottom.