Fathers and fishing. The two seem to go hand in hand — or should if they don’t already.

My father and I had a rocky relationship. He struggled with alcohol throughout the first 20 years of my life, and his health in the final 10 years of his life made it difficult for the two of us to mend our relationship.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m as much to blame as my father. I spent so much time being mad at him, however justified, that I never bothered to get to know him as a person or father.

I’m stuck on this now, because as a second Father’s Day passes without my father, I’m realizing that in all reality, my dad left me one pretty special gift.

Fishing.

For as little as we did together while I was growing up, I do remember the old man kicking my butt out of bed early on a Saturday morning to take me fishing.

As an adult, I’ve learned from my older siblings that my father had a passion for fishing, but all those times he woke me up early to take me out to the creeks around our town tucked away on the southern Minnesota border, he never wet a line.

He watched me fish; I’m sure he snuck nips from a hidden bottle or maybe he poured it into his soda, but he never fished.

In my bitter youth, I never bought a present for my dad on Father’s Day. Not once. I’m not sure how that made him feel, or if he really ever cared at all, but now I sorta wished I had taken him fishing. Especially in the later years of his life.

If his passion for hooking pike (the king of the creeks we fished) rivaled mine, then I think a trip out with his son would have been the perfect present.

But that is neither here nor there, because both of us missed our chance to change things, and now it is too late.

As a father myself and a man eager to teach his nearly 2-year-old son how to fish, I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking about those fishing trips with my dad. I wonder if my son will feel the same thrill as I did when catching a fish, any fish?

I imagine he will, and I imagine I will feel such pride. Isn’t this what being a father is all about?

I guess where I’m going with this, is that if your dad loves to fish, but between work, and family and other commitments never has any time, then take him out to fish.

You might be surprised when your special Father’s Day gift to old dad turns into a lifetime gift for yourself.