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My father's birthday is in the first week of June.  Father's day (as I'm sure you know) is the third weekend of June.  The last few years, we've made the second weekend of June a Father-Son fishing weekend.

For those who didn't read about last year's trip or have forgotten, last year we traipsed around lake Carlton in Morrison, IL and stopped briefly at the Coleta Trout Ponds, all with no signs of fishy life.  A big double skunk.

So this year, we went back to what my dad knows:  Carp fishing.

Long-anointed "The Carp King" by  his brother, my dad is most comfortable sitting by the Rock River fishing with corn on the bottom.  So that's what we did.

Relaxing on the banks of the Rock

We started a little late, around 10:30, in Rock Falls, IL.  No big hike to a secret spot, no scouting out prime locations.  Just put corn on your hook and cast into the eddy just past the boat ramp.

After about fifteen minutes of chewing the fat, it was fish on for the Carp King.

Putting a good bend in the Abu Garcia. 

Dad uses a medium action rod for a better fight with the fish so it wasn't clear how big his catch was until he got it up near the shore.  Not his biggest catch but a catch none the less.

All fish were released unharmed.

Some ten minutes later a carp came calling on my line.  As soon as I set the hook it started thrashing out of the water, shaking it's head and roiling the surface of the water.  It was a chore to keep the rod high enough to keep tension and get up off my ass at the same time.  The carp would get within about 3 feet of shore and surge out a few feet.  After doing this about a half dozen times, I finally got him beached onto the shore and proceeded to pose for crappy carpy pictures:

Way to cover half the fish with your beefarms doofus.

  You can see it a bit better here:

If I had to guess it was about 8 or 9 lbs but yesterday wasn't about measuring fish, we were just having a good time.

After that the bite slowed down a bit.  Luckily, my 17 year old sister showed up with her fancy camera and sunglasses:

If she had taken the picture a half second earlier, you would have seen like a million pelicans.

Sometime during the time we were messing around with sunglasses and taking pictures, I must've gotten a bite.  When I picked up my pole to check my bait, there was something tugging at the other end of the line.

Felt bigger than the last one.

Unfortunately, I didn't set the hook well enough.  The fish took two monstrous runs and on the second one, the hook popped out.  Would've been a good one.

Dad can't stay out too long so our outing only lasted about two hours but it was one of the funnest outings of the year so far.  Certainly less frustrating without having to figure out what lure/presentation to fish in which stretch of water to maybe entice a bite.  I think I'm going to work some more bait fishing into my rotation.  There are a couple lakes around here that hold some big old carp/catfish.

It was good to get out with my dad too.  He and I didn't get along too well in my teenage years and we still have a differences but it's good to put that aside at least once a year and just catch some fish.  Happy Father's day everybody, hope you get to take your dad/kid fishing this week!