Fishing With My Granddad

  You talk about fishing stories, most of mine are with my granddad, a man who loved the outdoors and better yet loved to fish, primarily in the river bottoms with a cane pole.  He drove an old model, 50’ International pick up 4 wheel drive truck and could go in areas where most men wouldn’t think of venturing.  I loved to go with him anywhere, it was always a great adventure, he loved life and laugh all the time, we went places where only a tough old man and a dumb kid would look forward to the punishment of the environment. Hot humid weather, tons of hungry mosquitoes that loved O-positive blood. Lots of snakes, spiders, rough camping conditions with no mosquito nets, if we didn’t catch fish then we went hungry but it seams we always ate good.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         That big rawboned man could always catch fish but his favorite was crappie also know as white perch and they were good cooked over an open fire. We did eat good until grandma’s eating’s she sent with us were gone, usually by the end of the second day and then we got down to fish, bread and hot black thick coffee  which you needed a spoon to drink.                                                                                                                                                                      I remember one evening, we were moving a trot line (for cat fishing) and he ran the old flat bottom boat under some overhanging brush on the river bank where I was going to tie one end off, there was a huge red wasp nest there and they attack me asap.  I dove out of the boat and swim down river as far as possible before coming up.  He was sitting in the back of the boat laughing and did not get stung once.                                                                In those days, East Texas had some wild woolly back country in the thickets and river bottoms with turkey, quail, dove, cougars, black panthers and a few black bear which made it even more exciting.  I would go anywhere with my granddad who I dearly loved and taught me so much about life and our environment.  The lessons from that period of time are still used today and I wonder if I’m doing an adequate job teaching, as my grandfather did in the past.