Father's Day Gifts - not what dad wants

When you are shopping for Dad, and Don't know what to get.

My dad would always marvel and treasure any little gift given to him, especially by me, his son. To a point where I would always think, "C'mon Dad, really?" but yeah really. These things were that important to him. He still has things tucked away that I gave him when I was a boy.
It was never the gift he wanted, needed or expected though, it was the time. For some reason, when you become a dad, time is this precious commodity. I feel it myself as a dad when I look at my teenage daughter with her nose in the air, I just want her time. Nothing special, just time. I found myself cherishing cards and pictures from years past as well.

I am not sure when it began, but it was some father's day when I had no money, and was behind on bills, and had no idea what to do. I said, "You just want to go fishin' on father's day dad?"
The answer was absolutely!

That was the year it all changed, and I started to "get it". I guess it's a Van Morrison "cat in the cradle" moment and thing, but every father's day no matter what is going on, my dad and I have always planned and assumed we would be going fishing. Some years we have to move it around a little for the weather, but it happens.

It has been one of the best gifts we could give one another, time with my dad, time with his son. Money doesn't matter. Sometimes it can just be sitting on the bank of the brook, or it can be blasting around in the bay looking for monster Stripers, Blues or Sharks.

There is nothing you can really buy your dad that will be better than your time, and there is nothing more valuable than the memories made. This year some of my friends are reminded of the dad's that have left this world, and in my nod to them, I cherish my time with my father even more while he is here.

So this Father's day, I encourage you all to give the best gift that you have to yourself and your dad..... your time.

If you catch some fish too, well that's just fine!

~Lloyd Metcalf

Hawaiian Shirt Contest

Yes fashion can cause pain!

So here's the deal and the contest.

If someone thinks they can beat Kent's ugly Hawaiian shirt, go to our Facebook page and post your pictures of yourself or your friends wearing a painful Hawaiian shirt out in public.... on purpose, and the winner will be featured on the next episode of "Hanging Around The Fishin' Hole". Perhaps for any particularly outlandish entries, additional prizes may be offered as condolence for your loss of fashion sense.

As a base for comparison, Kent has offered up an old picture of his first crazy Hawaiian shirt. Although, personally, I think he should have been more concerned about the shorts in this picture than the shirt.

As terrible as this shirt is, his apparently lucky pike fishing shirt wasn't much better in the way of fashion sense, and he wore both in public!!

If you think you have a worse fashion crash than this, Hawiian or otherwise, post your pictures online at our facebook page today to be considered for entry in the contest! Let's see what you got!!

The Fishin' Hole on Facebook

Chesapeake Bay Retriever Goes Fishing

He's going to retrieve the fish!

Yesterday Kent and I took his retriever down to the river for some exercise and a photoshoot, and hopefully roll out some fly line. Water is home for these dogs so it all seemed like a great idea, and all went extremely well. A wonderful day on the banks of the Saco River to be sure.
Akira the dog however, had never seen a fish before. I showed him a little 8 or 9 inch smallie I had caught, he gave it a few licks and thought that was just great, he could bring that back if I threw it! After all, that was the expectation of the orange bumper, that apparently was getting increasingly boring.

Not sure where the encounter was going, I released the fish, and a 10 minute fever ensured while Akira swam around excited to retrieve this new thing, that .... uh oh... apparently didn't float!

I think the poor dog spend the rest of the day checking on me to make sure I didn't have that fishy thing in my hand for him to retrieve.

He did pose for some great pics on the river though, and even though the fishing wasn't so hot following up the recent trains, it was a good day on the water.