Go Fish !

My first time fishing was in Sni creek, bordering the western part of the farm. My mothers nephew, Ed Lawson, took me. He was about 16 or 17 years old. He was visiting us during the summer and decided he wanted to go fishing. He rigged up a cane pole and we headed out for the quarter mile hike to the creek. We caught some grasshoppers along the way to use for bait.

It seemed like a long time passed but he finally caught a fish, a ten inch long catfish. I had caught nothing ... nada ... zilch-o! I was really excited that he'd caught a fish and I wanted to clean it, take it back to the house and eat it.

He didn't want to do that and instead proposed that we cut the fish up and use it for bait ! I was very opposed to the idea but my opposition was over-ruled. I said we could walk back through the hay field and catch some more grasshoppers but he said the "cut bait" would work better and that we would catch a whole bunch more fish.

Well ... the "cut bait" didn't work and we didn't catch any more fish the rest of the afternoon. I was crushed. My first fishing trip and I was going home empty handed!

But that's the way it goes. Sometimes you just "go fish" and at other times you "catch." I would rather go "catching" than just "fishing" any day.