Remember When

[Bones]

I walk each morning to try and keep my blood pressure under control. I walked past a retention pond I have walked past hundreds of times. I looked at the retention pond and it brought back memories of fishing small ponds when I was a boy. This was about 60 to 65 years ago. There was nothing in this area but orange groves. I had come across an 8 ft wooden pram. My uncle built a trailer that I could put the pram on and pull it anywhere. Talk about having it made. I fished all the ponds in my area. It seemed like all the orange groves had a pond in it. I would pull that boat to a pond and catch bream, bass, specks and catfish. I forget what kind of reel I had could have been an old Shakespear. I also used a cane pole with a popping bug on the end. The ponds and lakes were crystal clear. I am still thinking about the good times as I am typing this. The big problem of the day was to figure out which pond to fish after I got out of school. Those were the days my friend.
Bones

 

[Redbow]

Yes sir I did the same as a kid growing up in eastern NC. My friends and I fished a creek that ran thru the countryside we caught catfish and bream mostly. Also a lot of farmers had what they called water holes for irrigation purposes that the government promoted by paying some of the expense of digging them. Bream, bass and catfish in those waterholes as well.. The down side to the water holes or ponds was quite a few kids got drowned back in the day after the water holes were built and filled with water.

We fished a small river actually named "Little River" where an old grist mill once stood. It burned down years before my time but the concrete foundations were still there and made for good fishing spots. The dam was also still in place when I was a boy but a few years ago the dam was torn down so the river could become free flowing once again. We caught lots of Redbreast Bream around that area of Lowell's Mill. Every spring hundreds of Eel's most very small ones were along the base of the dam, many people thought they were snakes and stayed clear of that area.

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

Some of my fondest memories are wade fishing the spring fed Little Wekiva river with a bag of red shad Culprit worms under my hat and a stringer hanging from my cutoffs belt loop. Wouldn't do it today... saw a few but no telling how many gators saw me that I didn't see. Beautiful place.

 

[specialk]

Yes, grew up in VA, middle of a tobacco field...farmers had irrigation ponds for crops and cows as well....folks back then would let you fish anytime...i spent summers working tobacco and fishing those ponds....those were the days....

 

[Lindseys Grandpa]

Growing up I fished a pond my Granddaddy built behind his house that I now live on, I fished several small lakes and streams in the area. We ran set hooks on New River at least twice a month growing up . It was my Fathers favorite place to fish . He's buried about 2 miles from there in Corinth . After the funeral I went down there and that's where I said my personal goodby .

 

[Minner]

My family has been fishing this creek for 4-5 generations starting when my great-grandfather moved up here in the early 1920's. I myself grew up fishing "farm ponds" in upstate SC although I've fished this crick a bunch over the years too.

 

[BassRaider]

A friend of my parents had a 4 ac pond in Portal and I had permission to get those pesky bass out of it. My parents thought the only reason for me to drive 200 mi was to go fish and not spend time with them.
I used the old mans jon boat and would paddle around the pond. Had a coffee can with eyebolt cemented in on a rope for an anchor. Used a 5gal pail to put the fish in and when full would paddle to the bank and put them into wire fish basket. Used mainly a silver or gold mini Rapala and caught small bass, black crappie, and 1 1/2 to 2 lb bream. Almost every cast would produce a fish. I miss those times!

 

[fishfryer]

A friend of my parents had a 4 ac pond in Portal and I had permission to get those pesky bass out of it. My parents thought the only reason for me to drive 200 mi was to go fish and not spend time with them.
I used the old mans jon boat and would paddle around the pond. Had a coffee can with eyebolt cemented in on a rope for an anchor. Used a 5gal pail to put the fish in and when full would paddle to the bank and put them into wire fish basket. Used mainly a silver or gold mini Rapala and caught small bass, black crappie, and 1 1/2 to 2 lb bream. Almost every cast would produce a fish. I miss those times!

I would too

 

[Ruger#3]

The Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River runs through the mountains of eastern Ky. From a very early age I fished the river for catfish. I’d catch crawdads in the creek for bait. I’d also toss a minnow trap in the river to catch more bait while fishing. If family were busy I’d hitch a ride with anyone going out of the holler. Coal truck drivers were my taxi service. Many good sized cats ended up on my stringer. Folks would view letting a child wander like that neglectful these days, I loved it.

 

[Darien1]

My Uncle had an irrigation pond on his property just outside Nashville, North Carolina. I was staying with a couple of old maid Aunts that lived on the property for a week one summer and was bored out of my mind. I saw the little hole across the road and asked if there were any fish in it. My Aunts said that my uncle and his boys might have put some fish in it that they had caught in other ponds in the area. I borrowed a spinning reel and rod from my Aunt Debbie, dug up some worms in the yard and went fishing. i was maybe 10 years old.

Anyway, I fished for about an hour with nary a bite and was about to give up on it as I was walking along the bank back to the house I noticed a fish swimming in the shallow end of the lil' hole and decided to make one more cast to see if he was interested. I moved my plastic bobber up to make the bait go down about 6 inches and casted it out near the fish I had seen.

I let it sit there a few minutes without a bite and started to retrieve it. As soon as it started to move something hit it hard and I reeled in a 4 pound bass. Woo Hoo, now I was getting excited. Little did I know that a 10 year old kid wasn't supposed to catch bass by casting and retrieving an earth worm on a bream hook attached to a red and white plastic bobber. I cast out again and started retrieving it and something hit it again. Another good sized bass.

I fished for about another hour and ended up with 8 large bass, the largest was 7 pounds and tossed back many more. I struggled to carry all those fish back the the house and my Aunts were astonished that I had managed to catch all those fish. We had fried bass at every meal for a few daysl

 

[87Warrior]

Growing up in the piedmont of SC in a rural area there were many farm ponds and small creeks for swimming holes, catfishing and frog gigging at night and bass and bream fishing by day. Kids were allowed to go to these places with just a “watch out for snakes“ warning and a certain time to be home. You only had to miss the return time once to be taught a hard lesson on honoring your commitments. It’s tough on a kid watching his fiends doing all the things you love to do while standing inside at the window. Sitting was allowed but would have painful to do once my Dad finished with his discipline lol. We learned many life lessons and mainly avoided the trouble that boredom can bring a kid by having the access to all the places to fish and roam for the price of asking the owner permission. Left many a mess of cleaned fish with landowners we visited. Sometimes during hay or grain season one of the farmers would ask us for help and would pay us a few bucks for our work. Nowadays, most all of these places are in pine forests instead of cattle farms and as time passes so does the ownership of said places. The ponds are mostly still there but access is difficult if not impossible to get. I will remember all of these times and places as long as I am here and am eternally thankful for growing up in time and place such as this.