Precious Memories
I have been thinking a lot lately about my childhood and one of the memories that keeps coming to my mind is "Hoe fishing". I can't really remember what time of the year we did this. It could have been spring, summer or fall. All I can remember is we did it when it was hot and that could have been any of those 3 seasons in South Georgia. It's probably illegal to do it now, but it sure was a lot of fun when we were kids.
Just at the end of our garden was a small patch of woods and just past those woods was a little creek. The water in that creek was black water as most of the creeks in the South are. It turns black from all the tannin in the water caused by rotting leaves. This particular creek had a good sized "hole" (wide and not too deep) on the other side of the road and it was full of catfish.
There were 7 of us kids in our family, 3 boys and 4 girls. So on a good hot day we would take all the hoes (just regular old garden hoes) we had down to the creek. The boys would take those hoes and run them along the bottom of that creek until the water got all muddy. Catfish can't breath very well in muddy water. Before you knew it all the catfish would come to the top of the water to get air. You could see little whiskers all over the top of the water. Then the boys would take the hoes and flop those catfish out of the creek onto the bank. We'd run around and pick them up and put them in a bucket until we had a good "mess" of catfish. We'd go back home wet, tired, hungry & thirsty. Then take them home and clean them. Mama would fry them up and we had dinner.
I really don't like the taste of catfish, never did, but it sure was fun to run around that creek bank in that hot Georgia sun and watch them start coming to the surface almost as if by magic, their mouths gulping in that fresh air. Of course you had to get wet and muddy, that was half the fun. I am sure mama could hear us laughing and having fun all the way to the house.
I think that might have been the easiest fishing I ever did. You didn't have to wait for a bite and hope you got the fish to the bank. You could be pretty sure when you went hoe fishing that you'd have a mess of catfish that night.
I hope to add more memories, of growing up in my wild and crazy family, to this blog as I want my children to be able to read them and cherish them as I do.
Cherish your memories, they are what makes you who you are.
Mae
I have been thinking a lot lately about my childhood and one of the memories that keeps coming to my mind is "Hoe fishing". I can't really remember what time of the year we did this. It could have been spring, summer or fall. All I can remember is we did it when it was hot and that could have been any of those 3 seasons in South Georgia. It's probably illegal to do it now, but it sure was a lot of fun when we were kids.
Just at the end of our garden was a small patch of woods and just past those woods was a little creek. The water in that creek was black water as most of the creeks in the South are. It turns black from all the tannin in the water caused by rotting leaves. This particular creek had a good sized "hole" (wide and not too deep) on the other side of the road and it was full of catfish.
There were 7 of us kids in our family, 3 boys and 4 girls. So on a good hot day we would take all the hoes (just regular old garden hoes) we had down to the creek. The boys would take those hoes and run them along the bottom of that creek until the water got all muddy. Catfish can't breath very well in muddy water. Before you knew it all the catfish would come to the top of the water to get air. You could see little whiskers all over the top of the water. Then the boys would take the hoes and flop those catfish out of the creek onto the bank. We'd run around and pick them up and put them in a bucket until we had a good "mess" of catfish. We'd go back home wet, tired, hungry & thirsty. Then take them home and clean them. Mama would fry them up and we had dinner.
I really don't like the taste of catfish, never did, but it sure was fun to run around that creek bank in that hot Georgia sun and watch them start coming to the surface almost as if by magic, their mouths gulping in that fresh air. Of course you had to get wet and muddy, that was half the fun. I am sure mama could hear us laughing and having fun all the way to the house.
I think that might have been the easiest fishing I ever did. You didn't have to wait for a bite and hope you got the fish to the bank. You could be pretty sure when you went hoe fishing that you'd have a mess of catfish that night.
I hope to add more memories, of growing up in my wild and crazy family, to this blog as I want my children to be able to read them and cherish them as I do.
Cherish your memories, they are what makes you who you are.
Mae
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