Fishing with Dad

One thing I will always rembember about my dad, he LOVED to go fishing...whether it was trout fishing in rivers or lakes, or deep sea fishing, which he preferred. I will always remember his knowledge of baits, and weights, of lines and lures, and the specific '10 or 20 test pount weights' of reels....I think his days in the Navy endeared him to the sea.....
He loved to fish, and obviously he would drag me along, I didn't have the kind of enthusiasm for fishing that he did, but I went along with it becauce he was my dad...we would go often with his fishing buddy, Jim, who he worked with...other times he would hook up another guy who had a deep sea fishing boat and out we would go...I never particularly enjoyed those outings, I was just a kid, and would sometimes get seasick, with the pitching boat all the time...but I could tell that my dad was in his element, he Loved being out there, I would marvel at the way he caught them, and would cringe when he would kill them instantly with a blow to the head....I remember feeling sorry for the fish, he would say "ahh, don't worry about it, fish don't feel anything" but I remember thinking that they did...
In the 70's, Uncle Joe had a boat, a 22 footer, and one time we launched it out of Santa Cruz, and went out deep sea fishing...four of us, Me, my dad, uncle Joe and my cousin Joe...the waves were choppy and I got seasick and needed to throw up over the side...my dad seemed angry, "Come on! Throw it up!...Like a Man!"....
Like a man??....In my mind I thought, oh jeez, don't give this macho shit just now ....but soon after Uncle Joe was getting sick too, and I remember thinking, okay are you gonna hand him that same macho shit?....
Anyway, after that we hadn't gone fishing for a long while...then in 1985, my dad came to visit me when I lived in Oakland. I knew he loved fishing, so I booked a fishing trip on one of those boats that sail out of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco...
We left early, like about 5:30 in the morning, during those magical hours when no one is on the bridges....we got to Fisherman's Wharf where all-day parking at the time was still about 5 bucks, then had breakfast at one of those hole-in-the-wall places with eggs, sausage, potatoes and toast for about 3.99....then we got on the boat at 7 and had a great day of fishing...my sea-sickness was non-existent, I guess you find your 'sea legs' with age. My dad caught two salmon, and I even caught a flounder...we had a great time, and the next day we went to the A's game....
In the subsequent years after my parents moved to Tulare, he started fishing in the Moro Bay area, near San Luis Obispo, and even down into Mexico, he never stopped fishing...it was what he loved to do....and even though I never enjoyed it that much...I'd give anything to go out there with him again.