Catching a Memory!

For me personally I love to fish, I also love to catch fish but I don't get wrapped up in numbers so much. As I was reading a post relating to how many fish a person was or in this case was not catching I did some reflecting back on my fishing past. Best that I can remember I didn't start fishing till around 10 years old. The parents of my two friends that lived next door would sometimes go pond fishing on the weekends up to Foyil OK., they would invite me to go along and us kids would fish for perch. Another friend up the street his dad would sometimes take us fishing we would fish from a 12' john boat in the strip-pits around Collinsville, OK. It was on maybe the second or third trip that I caught my first bass out of that pit. It seemed like it took forever to get it in the net, I remember it well I caught it on what us kids referred to as an "onion head" purple over silver it would be similar to a Bomber Square A but I think this was a Rebel lure. I was so excited, but my friends dad was even more excited when we got back to town later that day first thing he did was to call his friends and his neighbor and my dad to have them come over and see it. I really didn't realize at the time what all the fuss was about but as it turned out my first bass was a little over 6 pounds. It wasn't until I got much older, like in my 30's that I started to realize that it was a pretty big deal.

Not long after that I was about 11, a cousin that my father worked for bought some land out in the country, Sapulpa, OK. area which had 3 farm ponds on it, those first couple of years were the beginning of my love for fishing. But none more memorable than June 26, 1972 the day I turned 12 years old which is the day that my dad gave me a brand new still in the package Zebco spinning rod and reel it was gold in color. Up until then my dad had only fished a couple of times with me; he was a long hall truck driver always on the road until his injury which caused him to loose one of his legs. On that day I was very excited to get the new rod and reel being a kid I fished for fish! It never mattered to me what kind of fish, but my dad was a cat fisherman so we baited up for bottom fishing and cast the lines out. It didn't take long though for me to get a little restless just setting and waiting, so I took another rod and started working the bank. As you would know it about the time I was halfway to the backside of the pond I heard a loud racket and commotion which followed up with a shout from my dad to "Come here, Hurry up, Run" after I made it back around I could tell from the look on my dads face that something was wrong; something more than just "I missed a fish" yep, about a 4 pound channel cat had made his run on my new rod and it was gone! Pulled it right in pond, gone forever! Well luckily I was able to wade around in 3 feet of water and using my dads cane was able to hook onto it. And to our surprise it still had the fish on it, being as it was an open face reel that was pulled across a muddy bottom I could not reel it in so we just pulled the line in by hand to get the fish. Come Monday dad took me out to Zebco, we just lived a couple of miles from there and they replaced my new "full of mud" reel no problem; as they say oh the good Ole days.

In the summer of '73 or '74 it was August and it was hot on that same pond in Sapulpa (there is a picture of this fish I come across every now and then which I will share next time I find it) I was once again fishing, I had talked my dad into dropping me off so as I could fish all day and he would pick me up when he got finished with work later that evening. It must have been around 1:pm and there was a small V-bottom boat tied under a tree, now I didn't have permission to take it out but I realized two things, one if I set in the boat I would be in some good shade and with a little breeze blowing the heat wasn't to bad and I could leave it tied up but still push off the shore and I could then be in casting reach of the Lilly pads that covered the back half of this pond. So I'm somewhat laying down in the boat day dreaming more than fishing but still keeping a plug in water, it was a yellow Hula Popper with a yellow and orange skirt. I had made the cast into a small clearing of the pads, I just let it set there could have been 3 or 4 minutes or more but as I slowly started to retrieve, Ka-Wham, and for the next seems like 15 minutes or so the fight was on, I remember talking to God and Jesus saying oh please let me get this fish. I knew it was the hardest pulling fish I had ever had a hold of, it was a good thing the boat was tied to the tree because the boat was literally pulled out as far as the rope would allow and then we were pulled to left and back to the right I don't know how many times. And that was probably what helped me to land it since that had to tire the fish out, back then I did not know much about messing with the drag on the reel. Finally I did it, or we did it since I really think the good Lord was helping by then. I remember pulling it in the boat and just setting there holding it while my hands, arms and body shook all over. After I finally calmed down I used a rope through the mouth and out the gills to tie it off to the boat. This was just one of those it was meant to be deals, because finally I was ready to make another cast, and on the very next cast my yellow and orange Hulla Popper just kept right on flying away!!! This was before I had ever heard anything about retying after a big catch. We didn't have any scales to weigh it, but when I laid it down to clean it (yes we cleaned and ate our catch, it was one more meal that the family did not have to buy) I put a yard stick to measure it with and took a picture. It measured a little over 23 1/2 inches long which puts it in the 8lb. class.

Over the next few years I was introduced to heated fishing docks with the help of another friends grandfather; with snow on ground we would fish Lake Keystone and Lake Hudson and as the weather warmed would move to bank fishing on lakes Yahola and Claremore lake which on the spillway side of Claremore lake is where I first learned of and got to fish a crappie spawn. For three or four days we would go there in the evening and politely try to elbow your way to the water, there must have been 20 or 30 people there at least but you could catch crappie about as fast as you could get one in the bucket and your line back in the water, we would fish until we had just enough light left to see our back to the car.

At age 16 and a car to drive my fishing adventures continued, much of the time with those same friends and to those same places as well as with some new friends and to some new places. I recall we fished a small maybe 3 or 4 acre farm pond that we found, it was just off the road but out of sight for the most part. I don't remember how we figured out it was there but it hadn't been fished in who knows how long. There was remnants of an old house fireplace that was not more than 50 or 60 feet from the waters edge. The day we fished it was cloudy and trying to rain, I caught 4 fish in less than hour all large-mouth bass all of them weighed from 4 to 5 pounds. I went back many years later not to fish but to just try and find it, best I can tell it is somewhere below and in the middle of a residential neighborhood now.

I got married in '79 and thank the good Lord to a woman that loves to fish as much if not more than I do. As I got older, about 1983 I finally got my first boat, a 1971 Kingfisher with stick steering, what a blast. Me and the wife and close friend just about wet our line for the last time one night while fishing out of the kingfisher on lake Yahola when a major thunderstorm blew up and we were bouncing in 2'+ foot waves with nothing to hold on or tie up to, the lake is 100% concrete sides and concrete chute that you launch from so to keep your boat from being busted to pieces you have to ride the open water. We went on with that boat and fished lakes like Copan back up in the sticks for crappie as well as Birch Lake catching bass off of the bank till water turns so clear that you can see the bottom 15' below. Birch offered some spectacular out of this world night fishing experiences that were simply unexplained.

Was fishing out of a john boat back in '99 didn't have no live wells just a pull start 33 hp and a trolling motor and 1 quart plastic cup to bail the water out as needed, usually every hour would get you by. Was fishing at Shell lake just west of Sand Springs one weekend had the lake mostly to my self until about 7:30 that's when a tournament club showed up which was fine by me, I was actually a little envious of their big fancy rigs and hoped some day that I would have one myself. Those guy fished the dickens out of that little lake they went back in to start there way in around 1:00 so I headed in as well and to hear'em talk no one caught much of anything, I mean like 3 or 4 guys each had a 1 to 1 1/2 pound fish and there was about 18 boats fishing. Well when I pulled in and tied up, bailed a little water and pulled my 5 1/4 pound'er up from beside my boat with a wire stringer through his bottom lip you would have thought; well you can imagine what all the tournament fishermen thought. Don't know if it's still there but back then they had a permit office where you buy your permit to fish, inside the office the walls are covered with fish pictures. The person in charge took my fish picture and added it to the wall then we carried the fish right passed the there way in and released the fish.

Well I never thought it possible but along about 2009 me and the wife are fishing from a 2001 Ranger 518VX. That was quite the boat and everything that I'd hope for, you can cover a lot of water at 70mph but I was more comfortable around 45mph. Of course the ranger was a lot of fun and did give me the opportunity to do some real tournament fishing for myself which I totally enjoyed. But along about 2012 we decided to let it go and focus on finishing up the rebuild of our 28 foot pontoon boat, which I'm really glad I did. There is nothing like fishing from the comfort and stable platform of a pontoon boat, plus with it kept in a slip at the lake we find that we are fishing much more than we did before. Yes I do miss the speed of the ranger but slower may very well be better. I hope to have many more fishing experiences to one day share and look back on as well but for now a few things stand out, for me at least it's not in how many fish you catch, or the size of the catch, or even if you have a catch. It's simply in the memories that you make while your trying to catch!

Thank you to my wife, my father, my friends and parents of my friends that took me fishing!

Nice read. Thanks. I, too, have lots of memories of growing up fishing & camping. Mom had 5 older brothers and they all had several children so I had a lot of older cousins. I remember my Aunt Nell making a big breakfast for the whole crew one dark morning before we all went out on Millwood Lake in Arkansas. One of those uncles came by one time and checked me out of school when I was 16 because "the fish are biting and I need a boat paddler." I had my first beer that day, an Old Milwaukee, and we got in a redear bed and caught em until we ran out of crickets. I'll always remember that day! I'm still close with some of my cousins even though all my uncles and aunts have passed on. My mom was the baby of the family; she had 5 older brothers and 3 of them were fighting in WWII when she was born in 1943. I loved all of those good old men and I have lots of memories, dirty jokes, fishing tales, and war stories that I like to retell to my friends when we get together. My cousins and I still laugh until we almost cry over some of those stories and we enjoy retelling them every time we get together. They're just as funny each time as they were the last time. I wish I could tell you all about "Bohunk in the wagon yard, the old woman sitting on a rock, the little Coke bottle, Tex from Amity, and Huey wants some fish," but I better not. :)

Mama Flossie was Dad's mother. She was a great farmer, cook, story teller, and avid fisherwoman from way back. I remember when we would take her fishing, she liked to fish river lakes up and down the Ouachita River near the towns of Camden and Hampton, Arkansas. She always took boiled eggs, soda crackers, and vienna sausages when she went fishing and did she ever like fishing!!! She wore a big wide brimmed straw hat and she had a real cane pole. She taught me how to hook a "minner" and I can still hear her voice say "there he goes" when her cork would slowly sink under that dark river lake water. She also loved wild game. She would pick through and feel each and every squirrel we would bring in and pick out the tender young ones. Often, she would have the first couple of young ones fried up and ready to eat by the time we finished skinning the others. She also would pet and rub on every buck deer someone brought to the farm to hang up and clean. She called them her pets. She didn't eat venison, but she would cook up big platters of it up for us. Flossie passed away in 1995 at the age of 87. I still miss her terribly, but those memories will always be with me. I've not had any peas & cornbread as good as hers' since. My dad still owns the old farm and I go there often to deer hunt. My kids go there a lot and seem to enjoy the place, even though they never met her.

Dad took me fishing a lot when I was little, but he liked to stay too long for me and I remember how hot that aluminum boat seat would get on a summer day. I'm sure I had already drank the Shasta drinks and eaten the snacks he had packed for us way before noon and was ready to go home before he was. He says that he was sitting on a bream bed and was catching big ones one after the other just as fast as he could bait up and I was crying to go home. I don't remember it, but its probably true. :) I remember being threatened numerous times with a "boat paddle whoopin," but I don't recall ever getting one. Dad and I really became good fishing partners after I grew up some and was in my late teens. I remember he, my Uncle Bill, and I found a crappie hole at White Oak Lake near Camden, Arkansas and we tied to a little gray stob sticking up out of the water and caught over 100 crappie. That would have been back in 1987 or 1988. We kept them all..........I suppose the statute of limitations has run out since then. I remember my uncle "got too hot" and couldn't clean fish when we got home and I, of course, didn't know how to filet them close enough to the backbone to suit my dad (you had to be able to "read a newspaper" through that fish's backbone or you were wasting good meat.) I had rib cage duty. He and I cleaned fish for probably 2 hours that afternoon and I knew that I had grown up after that trip...........no more running to the house and getting in the cool AC while the men cleaned fish. I had become one of the men!

Luckily for me, my dad is still around and he and a friend of mine are camping at Lake Greeson in Arkansas right now. They caught 50 crappie yesterday and I'm sure are back at it today while "some folks like me gotta work." I plan on heading that way just as soon as I get off work this afternoon and my son and I are gonna stay in a camper with them. My cousin is coming Saturday evening to camp with us, and we're gonna fish, grill, tell stories, cut up, and make some new memories. Hopefully my son will remember what he's hearing and doing and some of it'll be worthy of a spot in his mind when he's 46 and most of the rest of us are gone. :) GTT

Thanks for sharing GTT.

Both of you guys tell a great story. Wonderful memories to recall. If you don't mine I would like to share a couple. My fishing started about the time I could walk. You see my Mom loved to bank fish.My older sister had kids my age and as Mom could not drive, sis would pick us up almost daily in the summer. We lived very close. My dad had a worm bed for us, but he had to work. Sure do remember catching a lot of panfish and catfish. But I could tell stories for hours and I just really wanted to touch on two, because of the 2 people in them.
My Brother in law was more like a dad or really older brother to me. He was 25 years older and always included me in activities , as if I were his son. I miss him dearly. He took us to Toledo Bend camping and fishing a few times the first few years it was open. What simple times. He would take my nephew and me out about 100 yards from the bank in a 14 foot boat after dark. We would hang a lantern, and bait up with shiners. In those days you caught till the minnow bucket was empty, then paddled in. The next morning he would fry up some eggs and make some drop biscuits and fry up 10 or so crappie. Man, that is my favorite memory of him, eating that breakfast at Toledo Bend. I could not have dreamed of a better man to have for a brother in law. So good to my family. He's been gone about 6 years.

The other person I want to mention was my 1st Mother in law. Man she loved to fish. She was so dependable, that for a few years she became my regular partner. I could call her at 4 am and say I'm coming pick you up. I would get there at 4:30 and she would have hot biscuits and sandwiches packed. She would panfish with a cane pole as I bass fished. If I put her on a spot with a few fish, I would stop and let her catch a few, before moving on. I would get the biggest kick, cause she would hold that pole out as far as she could all day. I would tell her it was okay to relax and bend her arm, but no way. lol After a few years she said to me that she wanted to catch a big fish like I did. It took a while, but I taught her to cast and she took to it well. I remember the first bass she caught like it happened yesterday. I had tears in my eyes , I was so excited. It was just a small lb and a half, but she was so excited, I wanted to mount it. She would have no part of that, she fully intended to eat it. And she lived in in a govt. apartment building for seniors. She had 2 friends who would know when we went fishing. I would clean the fish and she always shared with those 2 friends. I enjoyed that also. I miss her every time I go fishing, she's been gone 20 years.
Thanks for the post you started Lonnie. Helped me think about 2 of the closest people in my life.