Catbird
09-01-2005, 04:55 AM
A while back while visiting my father in the nursing home, I asked him if we had ever went fishing for catfish. I couldn't ever remember targeting them so I had to ask. He said that no, we never fished for them but we did catch a few on accident. He had no explanation why we never targeted them.
While growing up I went fishing with my father quite often. Most of the time I fished for bluegills while he bass fished. Then our trips turned to fishing for carp. We had a great time and landed quite a few larger carp. We would always take a box of Wheaties with us. We would crunch up a handfull and wet them with water from where we we fishing to make a doughball. We would then just break pieces off. Other times (mostly when fishing by myself) I would just grab a can of corn off of the shelf in the garage.
I remember, one time when I was about 12 yrs. old, I caught a 19# carp using canned corn. I was kind of small at that age so it just made the fish look even larger. I carried it with the stringer slung over my shoulder. The fishes head was at the back of my shoulder and the tail kept slapping me on the back of the calf. I got a lot of looks as I walked home through town. When I got home, Dad was very excited. He helped my clean the fish (we ate everything that wasn't green or ran faster than us in those days - unless we shot it...then we would eat it...lol). He said that he had never caught a carp that large. After we finished cleaning it, he headed off to the creek. He came home a little disappointed but headed back out first thing in the morning. He came home that afternoon with a 21# carp. I guess this is where I got my competitive spirit from.
After leaving home for the military, I got out of fishing and hunting. It was not untill much later that I got back into fishing. One of my younger brothers was into catfishing and got me to go. I enjoyed catfishing so much that it kind of stuck with me. The people around me now think that I have an addiction to catfishing. That may be so. One thing that is has done for me is keep me occupied and interested in some thing besides chasing skirts in the bar (not that there is anything wrong with that...lol). The thing that I fine funny with all this is, no matter how hard my Dad tried to get my to straighten up my life, it was the fishing he taught that brought me home.
P.S.
I started this story to talk about catfish but after reading it, I had to change the title.
While growing up I went fishing with my father quite often. Most of the time I fished for bluegills while he bass fished. Then our trips turned to fishing for carp. We had a great time and landed quite a few larger carp. We would always take a box of Wheaties with us. We would crunch up a handfull and wet them with water from where we we fishing to make a doughball. We would then just break pieces off. Other times (mostly when fishing by myself) I would just grab a can of corn off of the shelf in the garage.
I remember, one time when I was about 12 yrs. old, I caught a 19# carp using canned corn. I was kind of small at that age so it just made the fish look even larger. I carried it with the stringer slung over my shoulder. The fishes head was at the back of my shoulder and the tail kept slapping me on the back of the calf. I got a lot of looks as I walked home through town. When I got home, Dad was very excited. He helped my clean the fish (we ate everything that wasn't green or ran faster than us in those days - unless we shot it...then we would eat it...lol). He said that he had never caught a carp that large. After we finished cleaning it, he headed off to the creek. He came home a little disappointed but headed back out first thing in the morning. He came home that afternoon with a 21# carp. I guess this is where I got my competitive spirit from.
After leaving home for the military, I got out of fishing and hunting. It was not untill much later that I got back into fishing. One of my younger brothers was into catfishing and got me to go. I enjoyed catfishing so much that it kind of stuck with me. The people around me now think that I have an addiction to catfishing. That may be so. One thing that is has done for me is keep me occupied and interested in some thing besides chasing skirts in the bar (not that there is anything wrong with that...lol). The thing that I fine funny with all this is, no matter how hard my Dad tried to get my to straighten up my life, it was the fishing he taught that brought me home.
P.S.
I started this story to talk about catfish but after reading it, I had to change the title.