Well, Father's Day was rather uneventful. The weather was overcast and rainy, so I lounged around and watched sports all day and relaxed. But I couldn't help but think of a Father's Day from 1995.

 That year my children were living in another state and I wasn't going to get to see them. So my friend AJ and I decided to go fishing. We are both long distance dads and he couldn't be with his kids either.

 We packed a lunch and a cooler of beer into my boat and trailered it forty minutes to Lake Aleknagik, north of Dillingham, Alaska. We had one spot in mind, the hole where the Agulowok river feeds into the lake. That spot is great for dollies. We don't care about keeping or eating them. We are purely catch and release guys.

 Once the boat was wet, it's about 30 minutes on step towards the end of the lake.

 On the way there, AJ breaks out a cardboard box full of fishing paraphernalia he had just received in the mail. He had seen this infomercial and got suckered into buying it. I couldn't stop laughing as he kept pulling out lure after lure and showing them to me. I said "AJ, I only need two lures, my cast master and a green pixie. Why'd you get suckered into all that mess?"

 His lures were all made of this jiggly rubber substance. They reminded me of the gummy worms I used to bring home to my kids. I think he called them "flying lures". Not only that, they didn't have hooks. The hooks were separate and he had to assemble them, which he was frantically trying to do, 'cause we were approaching our spot.

 I pulled the boat right up into the mouth of the river and killed the motor. We just drifted from there, letting the current run us right over the fish hole. I grabbed my rod (already rigged with a cast master) and put in. AJ had a fancy looking lure assembled and cast off the other side of the boat. His cast only went about 20 feet and splashed right beside the boat.

 I laughed again and said that it didn't appear to “fly” too well. He mumbled some profanity under his breath and reeled back in. He said all he needed was a split shot for a little weight.

 "Fish on" I hollered. And in minutes I was releasing my first dolly. It was decent size, but nothing to write home about. I cast back into the water. AJ was just finishing putting weight on his line. I told him his lure looked more like a piece of costume jewelry. Again he mumbled something under his breath and cast his line.

 "Fish on" I yelled again. And in minutes I had released fish number two.

 But AJ wasn't about to give up. Now that his lure was actually casting properly, he had become pretty serious.

 We had drifted too far and I started the motor, eased back up to the mouth of the river, killed it and kept fishing. Two fish in the first drift was pretty good. And on my first cast of the second drift I had another. "Fish on" I screamed.

 AJ was starting to get annoyed. He decided he was using the wrong color flying lure, and was rigging up a different one. Soon he was casting again and again with the new color. Maybe a Budweiser would change his luck, so we both had one.

 "Fish on" I yelled. This was starting to become a Father's Day clinic.

A couple hours past as did many, many drifts. The score now (for those of you keeping track) was AJ-0, me-11. Some of our time was spent BS-ing about stuff, and we ate our lunch. So it wasn't hardcore fishing the whole time, after all, it was Father's Day. I have to admire AJ's determination in using the new flying lures, but it was getting a little embarrassing. Finally, after 3 hours and I don't know how many fish I'd caught to his zero, he broke down and asked if I had another cast master. Of course I had to lie and tell him no.

 AJ and I have fished a few times together since then, but I never saw the infamous flying lures in his tackle box again.

 You remember that trip AJ?????