But yet it is... In the back of our minds we return to the river, the lake, the pond and think of the sunset that we saw back when...

My first memory of any fishing at all, is bait fishing with my grand father and mother. They couldn't get their cane poles in the water because of me catching fish with my cane pole and turning around to get the fish off and re-baited. We were Crappie fishing. I don't know what I'd do without that memory of my grand father. There are many more, but that one is special... his tee-hee laugh through loose dentures and teasing me about saving some of the fish for him to catch. I must've been about four years old standing barefoot on the bank of Arlington lake with an over-sized horse collar life jacket on. I remember I caught three or four fish before he and mom got their lines in the water. Then it was a waiting game for everyone.

But... fishing was all bait fishing when I was small. My grand father brought the minnow seine and we caught our minnows, then we fished. If there weren't any minnows we didn't fish. We were dirt poor... which meant if you couldn't fish with dirt you might not eat that night. Many times I saw him take a clump of dirt and mix it with chicken blood to make a mud blood bait for cat fishing. It worked too. That was our dinner many times... I think we put the red in red-neck.

Thank you for that thread Ladyfisher... it brought back some good memories.