Bayou Outdoors: Ode to Dads

article and photo by Dan Chason

When I hosted our television series “Dan Chason Outdoors,” every show started the same. The black screen read: “This show is dedicated to my Dad, Rev. R.L. Chason, who always had the time to take me fishing.” That was our life. My Dad even used fishing to get us out of the bed on a school day. He would wake us up one of two ways: With a metal pot and spoon singing “Bringing in the Sheeves” at the top of his lungs, or by simply slipping into my brother’s and my room and whisper, “Wanna go fishing?” By the time we had shook the sleep from our eyes and hit the floor, it was too late to return to bed after we realized it was a school day. Dad was a big practical joker. He was also a lover of soft served ice cream. One joke he pulled was to buy two cartons of ice cream, eat one that was supposed to be Mom’s and then refill it with skim milk and serve it to her. He thought it was a classic joke to watch her face when she tasted it.

Dad was a very unique man and I miss him dearly. The thing I miss the most is our one-on-one fishing trips. I was the trolling motor, and he was the guide. Dad didn’t bass fish, but he could surely burn you out catching panfish of any kind or catfish. His favorite saying is one I want reserved for my headstone. Every trip we took would end the same. Dad would say, “Just let me catch ONE more, and we’ll go home.” That is the reason my Mom would not fish with him.

I was a busy Dad. I worked a full time job, and then in 1992 when my son was eight and my daughter was six, I started the television show. This added another full time gig onto my plate which meant not attending a lot of ball games, kid activities or anything else that didn’t revolve around the outdoors. I did take my son, Andy, with me, where he learned to run a video camera and eventually produce our show. This turned into a career, as he now owns Plugged In Creative Group, as well as working a full time job with Vantage Health Plan. Guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. What I learned in my later years is that the only thing I loved more than being a Dad was when I became a Grandpa.

My wife and I have five children and eight grandchildren. The grandkids on her side call me Papaw, and the ones on my side call me Pop (which is what I called my Grandpa). I didn’t have a lot of patience when I was young, so fishing with 4-year-olds is not a job I looked forward to doing. That all changed as these grandkids soon learned that Pop/Papaw had a knack for catching fish. Rarely does a week go by that one of them is not calling wanting to go fishing. It is the highlight of my week.

Such was the case during the last two weeks when Andy showed up with Cooper. Cooper is Andy’s son and has the fishing gene for sure. This kid, Andy and I caught 57 bream (that we kept) in one hour. I will never forget the first fish he caught with a cast he made and landed alone. You would have thought he had hit a home run. The first thing he wanted to do was send a photo to his Mama, then call his cousin, Mason ,and tell him he was catching more fish with Pop than Mason did the week before. I guess the fishing gene and competitive gene run close.

The week prior to Andy coming, my daughter, Danielle, came over with four-year-old Mason. Mason has it bad, as well, as he not only has the Chason fishing gene, his dad, Casey, is an accomplished and die-hard fisherman. You can’t drive down the road with him that he isn’t pointing out deer stands, critters of every kind and asking every question that rolls through his head about both.
But the one thing I learned on both of these trips is that life has come full circle. I watched both of my children in their parental roles with a loving, patient and kind assistance they lent to both of their children. I saw the love in the eyes of these kids as they told my kids “I love you, Mommy” or “I love you, Daddy.” Things that were music to my ears when my kids were little and are still music to hear today. Both of my kids knew they were loved. Both of them knew that their Daddy was there for them in any situation. And on these two trips, I learned the most valuable lesson I could have learned. If you take the time to share the outdoors with your kids, they will most likely share it with their kids and kids to come. This is not only a gift of a family-oriented activity, it is a realization that God has a special place for your family as well, in the great outdoors. I love you both dearly, Andy and Danielle. This article is dedicated to two great kids (and grandkids) who took the time to take this old man fishing.