For many years my friends have called me the "Traveling fisherman". Not because I travel all over the world or all over the states but because I will drive a long way to get on fish where I know there is a very high probability they are there. I don't fish as much in winter as I used to, and even when I did fish my bank spots in winter I would most likely be the only one there...but spring and fall are different. You show up at Pickwick...Nickajack, for the spring and fall bite and it is a chance to see old fishing buddies that you may have fished with for years. Your not really friends per se but you have a common bond with each other. It is a renewal of comradeship that has been on pause for several months. Usually on my fist trip in the spring or fall to one of my spots I would wonder if so and so would be there.....or if some of my fishing buddies who were on up in years would still be around for that one last bite before they really had to quit walking the banks. Sometimes you would enquire about someone and find out they had passed on. Sometimes you would be looking for a person and he would never show and none of the other group knew anything about him. I always looked forward to seeing everyone as much as I did the fishing. I remember one year I had fell at Pickwick and tore my rotator cuff pretty bad. I was absent from there a long time. Upon my eventual return several of my fishing buddies would come up to me with big smiles and remark they had wondered where I had been and they were sure glad to see me and were happy to know all was OK. I can remember doing the same when the shoe was on the other foot....you'd be sitting in those rocks and wonder about old Jack and why he wasn't there. Then you would look up and see him coming down the rocks and you would get a big smile...knowing all was OK..he had just been absent for a while. The other day while fishing on my birthday there was a man there that I had never met. There had also been a noticeable absence of a guy I had fished with each spring and fall at Nickajack for the past 6 years. I struck up a conversation with the man and asked him if he knew Jamie who had been absent for the last 3 weeks. He did...he knew him well. I asked him why he had not been fishing and was told my fishing buddy is now home bound...unable to leave the house...much less fish. It saddened me....and maybe even more so because it was my birthday.....it made me think I was slowly getting up there in age. My fishing buddy is not that old....just bad health issues hit suddenly. I know that can happen to any of us at anytime. When I first started fishing at this spot no one was around there. I continued to fish it and about two weeks later Jamie showed up. He never treated me as an outsider. He shared info like not many would. Every year when I would make my first run back there, if he was not there fishing on that day he would see my truck and stop by just to say hello. Since he lived very close by he would more than likely always be there when I would arrive after a lengthy drive. Many times he and 3 of my other buddies down there would be on a spot that is really only big enough for maybe two people to stand on, yet Jamie would say "Come on in here we will make room". There we would be literally standing shoulder to shoulder catching crappie almost on every cast. I will miss my "fishing buddy". To all who are young...and old....who read this, fish as much as you can when you can go. We never know when the fishing will be taken away from us.


Regards