Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Father-Daughter Time

After eating Easter dinner, I mentioned that a little help was needed to load the kayak in the truck for a half day river trip in the morning. My daughter informed me that she would like to join me since she didn't have to go back to class until Tuesday. Next thing I knew, we were loading up two kayaks and all of the gear for the mornings excursion.
It's 7am,  the bedroom light goes on and I see a beautiful smile and a young lady dressed in fishing gear. Oops, I had overslept. After fixing a cooler we loaded the rest of the gear and made the short drive to the river.
Hauling the kayaks to the rivers edge, I explained that we would be wading upstream and climbing over a small dam to get to section we would be fishing. Reaching the dam I put the kayaks on top of it and we crawled over. Holding her kayak steady, she loaded up and I gave her a shove after telling her to paddle like crazy. After catching up, we proceeded to toss topwater plugs as close to the Cypress knees as possible which produced some pretty viscious strikes. This was her first time to fish and paddle in current so I spent the day close by for safety as she learned the feel of the river. Really enjoyed watching her shoot the rapids on the return paddle with the scared smile all the way down.
We spent the day taking in the beauty of the river and  laughed as we tried to outfish each other. A day that I enjoyed  and  will always remember because you never get it back.