Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Fishing


I'm not sure why, but there's something deep inside my soul that gives me the ability to stand on the side of a lake, river or stream all day long, and toss and retrieve a lure or bait for hours.  Until it gets dark. It's just so hard to put the fishing pole down. I can remember camping at Atwood Lake, in my early teens, getting eaten up by mosquitoes, basically doing the mosquito dance at dusk, until I absolutely couldn't stand it anymore.  I don't care what type of fish I catch, I have always loved fishing.  I can thank my dad and my grandfather for that passion.

They got me started at a pretty early age.  My earliest fishing memory is Goodyear's Wingfoot Lake Park, a private retreat area for Goodyear workers outside of Akron.  It isn't private anymore- in fact, it's now a state park.  But there, probably at the age of five or six I remember catching a tiny little bluegill and a nice fat crayfish.  The rest is history.

I don't remember my grandfather fishing very often.  He just didn't participate in the sport very much in retirement.  I think by that time, he put most of his effort into golf.  But when he passed on last February, I went through his THREE tackle boxes, and found some pretty amazing fishing tackle spanning decades of fishing history.  I've been going through it this weekend.  I'd like to select the most valuable and interesting pieces and mount them on a shadowbox to hang in the wall.  Heck, I think there's enough stuff to fill three shadow boxes.

Although I don't do it much anymore, fishing is something that first sparked my interest in nature and wild animals at a very young age.

-Tom

6 comments:

  1. Fishing with my father and grandfather from a very early age was how I was first introduced and fell in love with the natural world too, so I hear you on that one! I love the shadowbox idea and hope you post the finished product whenever you get it done!

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  2. That orange glove took me right back to the times that my dad and I went fishing when we were camping. East Harbor State park and fishing on the old Bay Bridge was a favorite spot. I caught many small perch, one after another, from that bridge and that orange glove was MY glove to hold the fish with. I didn't mind baiting the hook with a worm , but I didn't like to touch the fish, so my dad got me this bright orange vinyl glove that protected my hand from the scaly, cold fish that was wriggling around while I tried to get the hook out of its mouth! I haven't seen this glove for probably 45 years or more, but as soon as I scrolled down and saw it, it brought back so many wonderful memories, being with my dad . I love the shadow box idea. Grandpa would love it!
    Mom

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  3. I have a few of my grandfathers old lures, and somewhere I have a book on antique lures. You should come by and check them out some time. Displaying them sounds like a great idea.

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  4. Thanks everyone- James- yes- I'll have to do that. The lures and boxes are in quite poor condition, but supposedly the boxes can be worth more than the lures themselves.

    -Tom

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  5. I was born and raised just a few miles from Atwood Lake and know exactly what you're talking about.

    I'm glad I found your blog, even though I'm quite late to the party. :)

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