Recounting the fun of fishing with family to build faith-filled relationships, and also taking precautions to prevent skin cancer.

Pic: Keith volunteering at the KLOVE Tent at the Louisiana Hot Air Balloon Championship Festival, 9/27/2013

With the National Hunting & Fishing Day coming up today at the Waddill Wildlife Education Center in Baton Rouge, I had to agree with The Advocate's Joe Maculso's recent proposal that we "Build More Piers for our younger Fishing Peers,” as that ties in so much to our need to better "bait and catch" bigger fish in our lives - holistic inter-generational relationships!

Also, last week I became much more acutely aware of the need to take better care of protecting my own skin when fishing, as I was recently found to fortunately have a treatable episode of superficial skin cancer on my arm - due to many wonderful outdoors' experiences being unprotected from dangerous ultraviolet radiation from the sun. I'm now sporting a fishing hat to help remind me to be more vigilant with proper sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher.

Our oldest son, Andrew, joined me a few months ago to discover a true local fishing gem with some nice piers: Greenwood BREC, off of Hwy. 19 . Besides many areas for outdoor activities like walking, cooling off per the water park, etc., we had fun fishing on some nice piers – even with shade keeping away a lot of direct sunlight in the middle of the day per the Activity Center there; we even caught a few bream to boot! We usually "catch and release" most of the fish we're blessed to pull in, so we and other folks of all ages can share the joy of fishing and catch them again - when they're bigger! I have to admit to not using any protective lotion on that outing.

But the most important aspect to fishing is really “catching:” that is, catching on to the really critical part of life – building lifelong and faith-filled relationships with loved ones!

All of us in the family have enjoyed many fishing and "catching" outings! JP, our youngest son, now also enjoys fishing, as he has learned so much from his older brother. Our daughter and my wife also have fished with us before and had a great time! We also get to go to some well stocked neighborhood ponds per some of JP's friends.

My late Uncle Arthur, who with his brother, Uncle Junior, helped run the old Kleinpeter Grocery Store on Jefferson Davis and Bienville in New Orleans, passed on some of his treasured fishing poles and gear to Andrew. Some of my relatives have had their own bouts with skin cancer that I just thought would "never affect me."

How can I forget the first fish I caught as a kid in New Orleans at an Audubon Park lagoon? I attended a Fishing Retreat this Spring sponsored by Catholic Community Radio where I caught my first Red-fish and Trout near Grand Isle and got to share some old and new "fish tales / tails" - you know, those kind that are like the opposite of a Pinocchio nose: the fish gets longer in length on the backside the more I tell the story! Once again, at that retreat, I hardly used any protective lotion.

So while we certainly can enrich ourselves and family relationships through outdoor activities, don't forget to protect your skin.

Didn't someone famous once note, “I will make you fishers of men!”? (Mt. 4:19)