More of this Feature • Part 1: Schools Out • Part 2: Summer Fishing   Join the Discussion "The end of school each year meant many fishing trips for me. What are some of your best summer vacation fishing memories?" Ronnie
Related Resources • School's Out - Time To Go Fishing - Freshwater Fishing • Cutthroat Trout - Freshwater Fishing
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Live worms were a group effort. We usually met at my house and went behind one of the chicken houses where the water trough drained. One of us would stick a shovel into the moist earth and turn it over, and the other two would grab for red wigglers as they tried to get back into the ground. And old tin can could quickly be filled with all the worms we would need.

Catching fish was very secondary to going fishing. We often caught enough for supper for all three families, and cleaning them was our task as soon as we got home. But the fun of the trip was everything that it involved, and mostly just being with friends. If the fish didn’t bite today there was always tomorrow.

I can still feel the hot sun on my face and the cold water on my toes as I waded the upper end of Black’s Pond. There was an old channel in the upper end and the water was always cooler down in it. I was my own first depthfinder and temperature gauge! I learned the location of drop offs, stumps, hard bottoms and other structure by feeling it with my feet.

We also learned to pattern fish in those early days. There was one stump at Harrison’s Pond that always had a bass beside it. If I could cast my topwater plug just right, and work it up to the stump, I would always get a bite. Unfortunately, many times my line went over the little bush growing on the stump and I would have to wade out and unhook my only topwater plug, scaring the fish away.

Many times I want to return to those more simple times. Everything was much better back then, or so I remember. The sun was warmer, the water cooler, the candy bars more tasty and the fish harder fighting. Summer vacation made all my activities happier times.

I hope all school kids have as great a summer as I remember and make memories that will last them as long as mine have lasted me.

Part 1 >Schools Out> Page 1, 2