Sully's Gone Fishing!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

(Grandpa's Note:  I have been blessed with six grandchildren and am very proud of all of them.  Over the last several months Grandson Boone (age 24) has graduated from college, Grandson Sebastian (16) has learned to drive, secured his license, and is currently burning up the highways and byways of Oregon, Grandson Judah (13)  is learning business skills including how to operate a cash register, Granddaughter Willow (11) has sung and acted in a play, and studied and preformed improvisational comedy, Granddaughter Olive (11) has also performed in a play in which she belted out a song in a manner that would have made Ethel Merman sit up and pay attention, and Olive, along with her younger brother, Sully (7), had the good fortune over the summer of being able to visit both coasts where they kayaked in the Atlantic and played in the big waves of the Pacific, and between those adventures even saw a musical on Broadway!  So it has been quite a summer for the entire troupe of grandchildren!)

My Kansas grandchildren, Olive and Sully, start back to school this week, and I learned a couple of days ago that Sully is cramming in one more big adventure before his summer comes crashing to a close.  Sully, who will be entering second grade on Wednesday, has taken up fishing!  His dad takes him to a private lake somewhere near their home in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City where he spends time basking in the sunshine of youth and pulling fish out of the water.  (Sully told me that there is a rule at the lake that he has to throw back all that he catches.  One day he caught five - that's a lot of "throwing back!")

Here's a picture of Sully with a perch that he pulled in the other day.  Boy, did that bring back memories for his old grandfather!

The summer after my fourth grade year, when I was ten, my parents bought an eight-unit tourist court  just north of Noel, Missouri, on the banks of the Elk River.  The whole family worked hard in the summers running Riverview Court, but in the afternoons, after all of the daily work was done, my sister and I were free to play and swim in the river - often with the children of the guests who were staying there.  And when I wasn't swimming in the afternoons, I could usually be found fishing from our boat dock or from one of the flat-bottomed aluminum boats that we maintained for use by the guests.  I had a simple rod and reel along with several cane poles, and I would sit for hours catching beautiful blue and orange sun perch and tossing them back into the river.  I have no doubt that I caught many of the same ones over and over!

I spoke with Sully on the phone yesterday about fishing, and he asked me what type of bait I had used.  Shrimp was the most common bait that I used.  A below-food-grade type was sold in a small white box in the frozen foods section of our local grocery store.  Worms and grasshoppers were also good bait.  There were unpaved parking spaces between some of the cabins, and those were always backstopped with railroad ties.  I learned early on that if I lifted the end of one of those ties and moved it a foot or so, the ground would usually be damp and covered with large worms.  It was much easier than digging!  And it seems like grasshoppers were always plentiful.  Also, wherever I was lucky enough to come across a soft-shelled crawdad, it would be sure to attract a hungry fish.

We were at that cabin court for six years and I loved every minute of life on the river.

I wish Sully the absolute best of memories as he learns to fish and enjoy the outdoors - it is so much healthier than time spent in front of a screen.

Happy fishing, Sully!