THE GOOD OLE DAYS

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Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on March 27, 2012 at 9:28am

Hey Jeffrey,

 Glad to read this story and keep em coming. I guess we can't go back to our childhoods , but at least we can remember the good ole days. We use to fish under the route 80 bridge while it was being constructed and there was a small pond formed  due to the bulldozer working in the area. It was a great spot for years for bass in my childhood and of course now gone.

 That's what some folks call progress , but is it really. You and I were both fortunate in our youth and my dad is now gone , relish the time you have with yours.

  Great story and thanks for it .
  YOU HAVE inspired me with your photography and will be taking some sunset shots my self when the weather settles down here and lots of pics of vintage rods coming soon. I"m behind the proverbial eight ball with the bugs from being a slacker this past winter, but being on this site frequently this winter has been the most relaxing winter I've ever experienced in my nearly 63 years.

 However the aches and pains in the morning don't diminish the memories of youth or the times we had.

 THANKS TOOTY

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on March 27, 2012 at 9:08am

Well I got down to Louisiana this past week and got in a few trips with my father who is 72 years  young......We visited some of our old haunts and talked about trips of the past and one particular trip stuck with me......

 A place we aptly named "The Park" was basically a wide spot in the Cypress Swamps of Little Castine Bayou formed by generations of beavers maintaining a dam and building it up to nearly ten feet over a 50 year span....When my dad was a kid they would walk through the woods for several miles to get to this location.....There first job was to bust a small opening in the top of the dam to allow the water to begin flowing.....My grandfather and other siblings would catch bait and set up near the flowing water with bamboo poles.......Whether it be Bass, Crappie, Bowfin, Gar, Shellcracker or Bluegill, the Park always produced enough fish to make a five gallon bucket a chore to carry home.....This was a process that was repeated for decades and passed on to younger generations of the Abneys and we all caught great fish at this location.......every time you visited this place the beavers would have engineered the repairs and it's almost like the fish knew there would be an offering as soon as the dam was broken again......This spot has fell to the progress of man now and is a bird watching sanctuary and the beavers have relocated to quieter spots on the bayou. But at least "Foster" as everyone called my grandfather, "Big" Jeff as my dad is called even though I have outgrown him and "Little" Jeff as the folks in St. Tammany know me got to share some great times in a wonderful fishing hole but a better place to chew the fat! Little Castine is not just a place I grew up but the place I learned to fish.....both of these are very important to me!

 

Comment by Leo Nguyen on March 12, 2012 at 8:09pm

That is truly the legendary background of responsible fishermen. You have git to give your dad a huge hug for me when you see him.

Comment by Greg McWilliams on March 12, 2012 at 7:59pm

My Dad and I learned to fish together. He was raised on a wheat farm in western Oklahoma!!!!! The closest water is The MIGHTY MEDICINE RIVER, at flood stage it is waist deep!!!!! Which usually come at harvest time!!!!

   Dad started raising Canadian Nighcrawlers when I was about 5 or 6!!!!!!! We went to a little lake near us, I had a cane pole, with a cork, a rope stringer and a cup full of crawlers! He left me there while he went casting plugs for bass!!! When he came back to where I was at I had that 3' long stinger full of bluegill, green sunfish and Okie punkin seeds (longeared sunfish)!!!!!! I could not get another one on it, and to my dismay he made me turn everyone of them loose!!!!

Couple of years ago I took about thirty Gills out for a fry with MOM and DAD, I said you know when I was little I couldn't keep these things, now I can keep them!!!!

Dad took a bite of fish, and said " If the ones you caught back then were as big as these I would have cleaned the all"!!!!

Well I was six, they seemed big to me, and I did OUTFISH my DAD that day!!!!!!!

 

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on March 7, 2012 at 2:48pm

GREAT ONE DICK and many thanks for sharing it. I Didn't realize there was anything when I was a kid except peanut butter and jelly till I was about 10. That was of course a long time ago and have managed to discover lots of other types of food! Many times too much food.

Comment by dick tabbert on March 7, 2012 at 9:46am

Finally got me a new rod and reel, well it was new to me it was a hand me down rod from Dad. A push button Shakespeare reel with a rod to boot. It was longer than I was tall but It was mine and I was more than anxious to try it out. We had many family outings when I was young and had all my cousins to share them with. I had a brother Gary he was younger but fishing was not his forte as mine was. He usually went of and played with the other younger cousins and me guess what I was exploring some soon to be fishing spots. Some how my Uncle Clayton came up with this huge tent and I mean huge. Every year we would set up camp at Walter J Hayes Park in Brooklyn Michigan in the Irish Hills Area. The neat thing is we were on the other side of the street not right in the campground had this area all to ourselves. I think we were 4 or 5 families sharing the site all Aunt's, Uncle's and Cousins. Thinking back I don't remember one squabble for the whole week. Everybody done there own thing and we all got along thinking back it doesn't seem possible but that is the way I remember it. There was a channel in the front of camp and it had a couple small docks on it that were hardly ever used so I made them my home for our week long stay. I have spent many hours on that docks. We caught so many blue gills with bullheads and catfish with an occasional carp and even turtle's it made it that much more fun. Dad had the job of taking off the turtles it was hard to get the hook out of them and Dad decided it was much easier to cut the line off and just let the turtle go. That's what we done from then on. We would all get up for breakfast seems like it was that traditional bowl of cereal for us kids and the grownups having bacon and eggs and toast. I didn't mind though it got me back to fishing that much sooner. For lunch it was peanut butter and jelly sometimes an occasional bologna sandwich. Supper I think they didn't know how to cook anything but hotdogs but once and awhile they would through burgers on the grill in the mix. It was all good every now and then I would get an extra hotdog put it in my pocket for bait. Awhile after supper we would end up walking over to the beach at Wamplers Lake. I remember the water was fairly shallow in the beach area and a little beyond. I remember one of the woman getting a leech between there toes she screamed so loud you’d of thought she was dying. We would swim for an hour or so and back to camp we would go. I remember the last couple years Uncle Clayton and Uncle Harry would take us out in the boat. We would load the boat with our bait rod and reels and head left out of camp going down the channel going through a huge cement tile under the road going down the channel till it opened up into another lake one I never fished before. It opened up into Round Lake another clear water lake. We found a spot next to some pad probably half way down the lake. The water was so clear we could see the fish take our bait. Finally we ran out of bait then it was hotdog time. I don't really remember how many fish we caught but I had the best time fishing that clear water it really intrigued me. They were some good times back them. I remember all the fish I caught off the docks and the crystal clear water they were great times. Seems like the adults had good times also I think all they did was sleep I think It was the air. On occasion the wife and I drive buy the old fishing waters and I'll tell her we use to camp and fish there. Hard to tell now again civilization en gulped it, it no longer exists. Now it is houses and where we camped it is nothing but a memory although the channel still exist connecting Wamplers and Round Lake all the rest is a memory of the past. Oh by the way I know why the adults engaged in all them catnaps now being as I’ve done quit a few of them myself its easy, enjoyable, and just plain relaxing.

Thats Dad in his laid  back relaxing mode.

Us kids swimming. 

Uncle Harry my how this relaxing thing caught on. 

My sister in camp. this was our campsite.

Uncle Clayton jumped on the nap wagon I'm telling you this nap thing is catching.

Still campsite photos I can't get over the modes of transportation. 

Another shot of the beach

 More campsite pixs

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on March 6, 2012 at 9:56am

I appreciate that Tooty.......I love sharing the stories and talking about anything freshwater fishing related....Throw in the best times of your life and it's pretty good stuff!

Comment by DAVID L EITUTIS on March 5, 2012 at 9:05pm

HEY JEFFREY,

 Great memories and photos and what can anyone say except thanks for posting the photos and stories of the good old days .

  You write much like my favorite author, ROBERT RUARK, from the good old days he had with his grandpa. That is the highest compliment I can pay you .

 TOOTY

Comment by Leo Nguyen on March 5, 2012 at 4:50pm

Wow. You must have spent a huge amount of cash developing those films, then scanned them. Just plain WOW.

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on March 5, 2012 at 4:46pm

Thanks Dick, I estimate approximately 1200 more photos of the past and I'm really glad people that enjoy and respect fishing are getting to take a peek into the past....Even if you've never been to these locations, I try to help you imagine you being there through these photos and testimony........Everyone probably remembers sitting at grandma's house with the old family photo albums and looking through trying to guess who they were and what they were up to.....I don't do facebook Dick because even though there are millions of members there, in my opinion very few have the appreciation for our favorite past time and our nation's outdoors!

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