Baby Book Idea for Fishing Dads
One year ago, I entered into the best time of my life, fatherhood. Not only did I enter it, but I dove head first with a set of wonderful twin boys! The first year was everything everyone said it would be, from the zombie state of sleepless nights, all the way up to the smiles and giggles of past few months. No matter how many bottles I washed, diapers I changed, or sleepless nights I endured, one thing never totally went away. My passion for fishing.
I love my boys and wife more than anything, which is why it was an easy choice to make time for my new family the highest priority. With barely enough energy to function, and four hours of sleep an uncommon luxury, my enthusiastic (borderline addictive) fishing mindset received a reality check.
In the first couple weeks that my boys were home from the hospital, I knew I eventually wanted to create fishing memories for my boys. I also did not want to skip out on household work and make things harder for my wife. So this left me with basically one option: I could fish when the boys were napping AND all the work around the house was either done or accounted. It is very important to note that this was not a wifely demand. This was a self-imposed mandate, because at my core I want to be a good father, husband and fisherman.
After one month, I had an idea. Like most people, we had a baby book for each of our boys. Between the hustle and bustle of the first couple months of home life with twins, my wife was occasionally entering information in the baby books. That way when we stopped being zombies, we would remember what happened. I will be the first to admit, I was not exactly the best at remembering to fill out my portion of the baby books. But I did come up with a log of my own that was easy and super fun to fill out.
Everyone has heard of fishing journals. They provide a place for documentation of information pertaining to catching a fish. This includes conditions, location, presentation, equipment, and the story of events that accompanies the catch. I had one that was a gift from my wife. I decided it would be pretty cool to use it as a log for both my fishing trips and also a father’s version of a baby book. Basically, the log would serve as a fun way for me as a fishing dad to document the details of my fishing while also providing some stories about the boys through their first year of life. Any journal will work, but I really liked the amount of room I had in the journal I used (“The Fisherman’s Journal”). It has tons of room on the back of each page to put stories of the kids in addition to the secret spot and hot baits you used to catch your fish. Not to mention it has way more entries than I was able to use in a year. Also it is available on Amazon and has prime shipping, both essentials for me because I hate going to the store almost as much as changing poopy diapers.
If you have always thought about keeping a catch log or journal this is a great motivator to finally take the jump. After a full year I was actually able to reference my first couple entries for the last couple fishing opportunities of the year, and it was incredibly fun to go back through all of the memories kept in that journal. I’m sure the boys will love it someday, and they will be starting with so much more information than I had, right from the beginning!
