My Fishing Trips

Fishing is for people of all ages.

Fishing tends to produce a gentleness of spirit and a pure serenity of mind.   (Washington Irvin)

Select the fishing photos from the "Photos 2" button in the above bar menu.

My earliest memories of fishing are the times in the 1940s and 50s when our families would converge on Bayou Chicot for a day of fishing and eating. I couldn't begin to tell you who was present, but there were lots of relatives. Before going fishing, we would go with our "Paw Paw", Wallace Whatley, into the fields and woods to dig night crawlers and get "sawyer bugs" out of old dead trees. The sawyer bugs (grub worms) would be literally changing a dead tree into saw dust as they grew to maturity. Paw Paw always said that "sawyer bugs catch the biggest fish". We also gathered "catawba worms" (catapillars) from a catawba (catalpa) tree near by when they were available. I didn't like them much because of the green stuff that oozed out when you put them on a hook.

Anyway, everyone showed up at Bayou Cocodrie or Chicot Lake for a day of visiting, fishing, eating and general fun. We fished with cane poles from the bank and under the trees along the bank. The bobber and hook type of fishing. We always seemed to catch a lot of fish. At least enough to have a fish fry and a picnic. Those days are gone, but the excitement of fishing still remains.

I continued to fish after that and continue today. I love to wet a line and watch a nice size bass boil the water when he takes the popping bug that I made just for him.