fdayToday is Father’s Day and John sent me a card with a picture of one of Norman Rockwell’s paintings of a father, son and their dog heading off for a day of fishing. I loved the card and John’s comments on fishing memories.

Fishing does build many pleasant memories and it has always been one of my favorite pastimes. I haven’t done much of it the last few years but I have many wonderful memories that can take me to a stream or lake pretty much at will. Not as good as actually doing something, but it is a whole lot easier. I can visit so many places, times and events quickly without even getting into the car.

Along with all of the great memories of fishing in my childhood with friends and relatives and later with Dorie and our children there is an occasional fishing experience that might be better forgotten.

Like most boys of the time growing up in Klamath Falls, I first learned to fish for chubs and yellow perch in Klamath Lake, Link River and Lake Euwana. As I grew into my teens and had access to a vehicle, either my own, the families or a friends I broadened my experience and began fishing for trout in the many streams and rivers in Southern Oregon. I soon became sort of a trout snob and would no longer even consider fishing for a warm water fish, let alone a lowly chub!

Well I got brought up short when I moved to the San Francisco Oakland Bay area in 1959. It was hard to find good trout fishing that was close by and uncrowded. In time I was able to find several nice trout fishing spots close to home but it took awhile.

The big thing in the Bay Area was salt water fishing or black bass. I began to follow Bud Boyd, an outdoor columnist for the Chronicle, who was really talking up the wild sport provided by fresh water bass. The more I read, the more I just had to try it.

But I had no idea where to start.

Then one day I saw an ad for an all day Bass Fishing Clinic that would teach you all the secrets you needed to become an expert bass fisherman. It was sponsored by – guess who? – Bud Boyd, the columnist who had been hooking all of his readers on the thrills of the sport for the past month or so.

Well, I just had to sign up. It was held at a private resort in the foothills above Napa Valley and only cost about $25.00 as I recall. That was in 1961/1962 dollars so it was really quite spendy. But I had to go and learn all of his secrets.

Dorie and I had not been married too long at the time and while I would have like her to go with me, we just couldn’t afford it. So I would go, learn everything I could and then teach her.

The day arrived and I headed up to the resort. After several hours of Bud and one of his buddies demonstrating every technique known to man that was guaranteed to catch bass, we headed to p0nds scattered around the resort. Together with the other students I flailed the water with plugs, spinners, spinner baits and plastic worms for about 4 hours and managed to catch a small bass.

In the afternoon I headed home a little discouraged by my lack of success but confident that given time and more practice I would be able to perfect and put in practice all that I had learned.

I was a great trout fisherman and no stupid bass was about to get the best of me!

When I arrived home, I went to place my magnificent bass (maybe 12 inches long) in our refigerator. I opened the door and my jaw just dropped!

Inside were 4 or 5 beautiful bass, the smallest of which would have made several of mine. I yelled to Dorie to find out where they had come from. Like maybe they had just mysteriously appeared.

It seems that, shortly after I left that morning, my cousin Bill had stopped by to see if I wanted to go fishing. Since I wasn’t there, he took Dorie with him to Lake Berryessa and taught her how to bass fish.

They were gone less time that I was, the trip was free and they both had fun and caught fish!

Dorie and I have fished many times together since that day and I have yet to catch bigger or more bass, crappie or bluegill than she did on any of our trips. But she has never beat me trout fishing.

Maybe that is what I should stick with.