Daily Journal file photo
Fisherman hunt for catfish in the Pee Dee River.
When I was a boy, I loved to fish for catfish. Back then we didn’t have all these fancy rod and reels people has got today. When we would go fishing we’d fill our pockets with bolts and nuts for weights and had a metal tackle box full of rusty hooks and several rolls of that old black nylon fishing line. Then we’d head on down to Pee Dee River to cut down several bamboo reeds for fishing poles and dig a bucket of Georgia wigglers for bait. We didn’t even have a fish stringer. When we caught a bunch of fish we’d cut off a tree limb that had a fork on it and just string them old catfish on down the limb. Then we’d head out for the house to clean the fish and get them prepared for the frying pan.
I remember one time back in fifty eight there’d been a gully washing rain up the river one night. The next morning my friend Bubba and I decided we’d go wet a hook cause you know catfish bite mighty good after a big rain. We got our fishing stuff together and made a bee line to the river.
Well, when we got to the river there were logs floating down the river bigger than a man’s leg and the river was a rising. Something just told me, this fishing trip would be something to remember. Y’all ever have this type of a feeling? We set right to work cutting down bamboo poles and digging them Georgia wigglers.
After we done dug us some worms we started up the side of the river. Back then there were paths leading up and down beside the river. I reckon the Indians or buffalo done made them paths. When we got to our first fishing hole there was our neighbor, Catfish John, already set up a fishing. Why there won’t nobody liked to catfish better than us, except Ol’ John. I says to him, “John you caught anything yet?” He says “well I’s done caught enough to make the pan stink, but I’s ain’t caught Ol’ Whiskers yet.”
Let me tell you a little about Ol’ Whiskers. Why this monster catfish was a legend ‘round our parts. Old folks say that the reason the river was so deep was cause Ol’ Whiskers done wallowed it right out. Says he’s got two sparkling eyes as big as the sun and horns coming out the side of his head as big as trees. Why some folks say he looks like the Devil himself. A lot of people hung Ol” Whiskers but nobody, nobody, ever put him on the bank.
We got through talking with John and headed on up the river to another fishing hole. When we got there we fixed up our poles and I put a big gob of wigglers on my hook. I then tossed the bait in the water underneath a willow tree. Won’t long I done got myself a bite. I pulled back on that bamboo pole and pulled in the longest eel I reckon I’d ever seen. Why that eel was at least five ft. long. If you ever caught an eel you know them is the slickest and slimmest thing the Good Lord ever made. I didn’t want that mess all over me so I just pitched pole and all under that willow tree and went back to fishing with another pole. That eel couldn’t be still and he done wrapped himself around that willow tree and was a dangling in the water.
We were catching some nice catfish when all of a sudden they just quit biting. Now that’s when we heard Ol’ John down the river hollering toward us. He says, “Boys, boy’s look out in the river, there’s something big headed y’all’s way.” We looked and coming right toward us was this big wake of water. We’d never seen such a sight so we jumped behind some trees.
Finally, curiosity got the best of me and I peeped around the tree to see want was in the water. To my disbelief there rising up out of the water was the biggest catfish I had ever seen and he was engulfing that large eel I had just caught which was wrapped around a willow tree and was dangling in the water. Why that catfish had a mouth big enough to swallow a small cow, had two big eyes that sparkled like the sun, two horns sticking out of his head as big as tree. Why he even looked like the devil himself don’t you know. He just rose out of the water, swallowed that eel whole, and slipped right back down in the river. I just knew he was going to break that old fishing line but that willow was giving just enough that the line didn’t break.
Ol’ Catfish John who was fishing down the river came running up there and asked “what you boys got out there?” I said, “John, it’s got to be Ol’ Whiskers, I ain’t never seen a catfish so big.” John says, “let’s try and pull him in,” but try as we may we couldn’t budge that big fish. John says “I got’s myself an idea, brother Ben is plowing his mule Pat down in the lower forty and I betcha she can you pull that big fish right in.” Away he went to fetch OL’ Pat and Ben
While he’s gone, let me tell you a little about Ben and his mule Pat. Both were getting on up in age and they had been around so long that they begin to look a lot alike. Another thing I might tell you, when Ben got excited he would stutter, stutter a lot, couldn’t help it, that just the way he was.
It won’t long before here come John leading Pat. Ben was following behind carrying the singletree (that’s what you hook a plow to). You could tell Ben was already excited cause he was stuttering up a storm. Says, “You boys done hung Ol’ Ol’ Whiskers.” I told him “yes sir-ee, do you think Ol’ Pat can pull him in?” “Why sure she can,” says Ben, “Ol’ Pat can out pull two tractors, two tractors.”
We hooked a rope to OL’ Pat and tied the other end to the willow tree. Ben says, “Move on up girl!” Why that mule stretched that line as tight as a banjo string. Ben says, “Cut that tree down boys!” We took our hatchet and started chopping. When that tree fell into the water it must have scared Ol’ Whiskers cause he done took off down the river and was a pulling that mule into the river behind him. Ben said, “Help, help me boys!” We took a hold of Pat’s bridle and pulled as hard as we could. Why between us and that fish we liked to pull that mule half into. All of a sudden that bridle broke and sent us all into the bushes. I’ll be John Brown if’en that fish didn’t pull that old mule right into the river. Ben says, “Lord have mercy, there go my mule in the river.” Sure enough, the last thing we seen of Ol’ Pat was her two ears going down the river toward Cheraw.
Now if’en you aiming to do any fishing in Pee Dee River and you hang something you can’t get in, get you something bigger than a mule cause you see Ol’ Whiskers he still in that river, don’t you know!!!
"fish" - Google News
November 10, 2021 at 05:54AM
https://ift.tt/3mXDZ6M
J.A. Bolton | Fishing for Ol’ Whiskers - Richmond County Daily Journal
"fish" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35JkYuc
https://ift.tt/3feFffJ
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "J.A. Bolton | Fishing for Ol’ Whiskers - Richmond County Daily Journal"
Post a Comment