GRAND HAVEN, Michigan — Out where the air smells like boat exhaust and sun screen, it’s all about the snap.
The snap of the hand as you make your cast, the snap on the end of your fishing line, and for Robbie DeHare and his son, Joseph, the snap of a camera.
“It was a real good day. Absolutely," smiled Robbie.
Passed down like an heirloom by his father before him, Robbie takes his son fishing every chance he gets.
“My dad always screams like 'fish on!' like really loud. It's kind of embarrassing," said Joseph, 11.
"It's a little bit of a family tradition," said Robbie.
It's a tradition heard many times one Friday afternoon.
“When I got home from school, he was like, 'okay, we're gonna go fishing.' So, we came onto the channel," said Joseph.
“We had line set about seven minutes in and we had one in the boat," said Robbie.
But the best things come to those who bait.
“The fish was thrashing around and going 100 feet out, coming back to the boat going 100 feet out again," said Robbie.
“My hands started hurting I want to give it to him," Joseph said, pointing to his dad, "until I saw like the fish jump up... and I saw it was like a really big fish. So, I decided to like to keep on winding it until we got to the boat.”
That catch turned out to be Joseph's largest one yet.
“The crowd on the pier were cheering, clapping," said Robbie.
But what happened next was even more unexpected. A family pulled up next to them on a boat.
“The nice town people, they went off to the side and took some pictures and said that they would go ahead and... put them on Grand Haven Informed," said Robbie.
The post soon garnered hundreds of likes and comment. The memory, now captured, took Robbie back to the days of fishing with his dad. It apparently did for many others, too.
"The comments just kept flowing and kept flowing," said Robbie. “I think that touched other people, their father and son fishing adventures.”
A father, his son, and the snap — heard in their hearts.
“You don't realize that how some small story can touch a lot of people's hearts," said Robbie.
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