Looking back at some fun times

There is a lot to be said for having access to so many good fishing lakes close to home. I see a lot of folks taking advantage of the nice sunny days when they are available.

 

In looking back to my days growing up north of town, I get a warm feeling when I look back at those days. Whenever I drive on Bridge Avenue, I take the time to look both East and West when crossing the creek and look out over the slough on both sides. I can remember springs when the water would be so high in the slough that it would fill the ditches on both sides of the road. The slough would hold many opportunities for a kid to explore nature up close. The red wing blackbirds would begin building nests on the cattails. There would also be yellow winged blackbirds, although not as many of those. It would always be an exciting time when a pair of those birds would be spotted. I would wait for the minnows to arrive in the “crick” and I could spend hours watching the water flowing under the bridge. It would always be an exciting time when the tadpoles started appearing. That meant that spring was heading towards summer. I spent many hours down at “the bridge” watching the tadpoles as they transformed into frogs. I also looked for any fish that were swimming through on their way to Goose Lake. 

 

I had made a minnow net out of an old window screen. It worked fine, but needed a couple of rocks to hold it under the water. Our neighbor, Dick Tavis, told me he would pay me for any minnows I could catch. I made good money that spring selling minnows to him and a couple other neighbors.

 

My Uncle Ben taught me the art of nightcrawler hunting, which was my bait of choice. I usually fished at Fountain Lake for bullheads and sunfish. There were times when I would ride my bike to the mink farm, buy some horse meat and use that to catch big bluegills and huge yellow belly bullheads. Those were special times spent with some of my childhood friends, just being kids enjoying the outdoors.

 

Until next time: It’s time to get outdoors and enjoy some fresh spring air. Take a bike ride, a hike or go fishing in one of our many area lakes. Fountain has a lot of shoreline to fish. So there is plenty of shore to fish from.

 

Please take the time to remember our troops that are serving now and those that have served before them. They are the reason that we have all of the Freedoms that we enjoy today.