Not a hunting story, but a fishing story about my grandpa. I've never posted on this board but this topic got me. I'll apologize in advance because this is a little long.

Fishing was always our favorite thing to do together for as long as I can remember. He taught me how to cast a bait-cast, took me out of school to play hooky several times a year, and we would go to Bassmaster University every year to celebrate our birthdays that were only 4 days apart. Obviously as I got older girls, sports, and other things occupied most of my time and I didn't make as much time to go fishing with him through high school and college.

Then at Christmas 3 years ago he was really sick and he couldn't shake it for months. By April we found out that he had stage 4 liver cancer and was given 6 months to live. Before he started chemo we went fishing twice and tore it up. We got into a school of largemouths and he even caught two bass on one crankbait. It was an absolute blast and I was sure that was our last time fishing together.

He had a truly terrible experience with chemo and it took months for the doctors to come up with a combination that would allow him to keep food down. But he's one of the toughest men I've ever known and he kept telling me that we would get out on the boat and go fishing again.

Sure enough we did. I remember it was a perfectly clear July morning and I helped him into the boat since he had lost nearly half his body weight. We rode up the lake to our favorite spot, and I could tell that he was struggling physically. Neither of us got a bite and we weren't able to stay long because his medication made him extremely sensitive to the sun, but on the way back to the dock I told him that I loved him and some of the best moments of my life were in the boat fishing with him.

He passed away less than 2 months later and my grandma told me that some of his last words were that he just wanted to go fishing with me again. We didn't get any fish into the boat that last time, but it is without a doubt my most memorable fishing trip with my grandpa.