Muddy Water Fishing

I had a Brother-in-Law that he was a Smart Person, he had lots of Money compared to most people, when I first met him he had a Shoe Store and a Jewelry Store in Iuka Mississippi, he also liked to hunt and Fish, he Bass Fished in Muddy Water, he liked for the water to be Muddy enough that you could see your Bait about six inches under the Water, about like a cup of Coffee with one Spoon of Creamer in it.

now he could have bought a Cabin Cruiser with out any trouble, but he fished in a 14 foot Aluminum Boat with a nine and one half Horse Power Johnson Motor, no he wasn't too tight to buyanything elses, it was that what he had was exactly what he needed for the way he fished.

I went down to visit one Day and I went to the Jewelry Store and he had two Chain Stringers on the wall and each Hook had a seven or eight pound Bass on it, I asked him how many he had caught so far this Year and he said 72, he told me why didn't I come and go Fishing with Him sometimes and I told him that I( would, so the next off Day I had I went down and we went Fishing.

we Put in at John Smiths Dock, it is the closest one to the Hi-way going to Mississippi, right there by the ala Miss Line, and we got into the Boat and we had two 9 foot Fly Rods and a litle Box with a few Baits in it, I hadn't ever Muddy Water Bass Fished so i didn't really know how to go about it.

We went up to the Railroad Trestle that you can see from the Hi-way and there was a big place there hat was muddy so that is where we Fished. we used a Black 3/8 oz. jig with a number 4.0 Hook and had Black Bucktail Hair and a black double tail Frog Leg trailer.

you had the Fly line and a 40 lb Leader on it and we would let out about 7 feet of line past the end of the Rod and it wasn't very long till he had 2 Fish in the Boat and I hadn't got a Bite, we would ease upto these Logs and gently drop the bait over to the other side and just work it up and down along that log and it worked for him but I didn't get a Bite, both of his was about 5 Pound each and when they would hit he didnt give them an inch he put it in the Boat.

oh yes Charles always would spray that Bait with Anise Oil and I asked him if it helped and he said that he didn't kno;w but that was the was that he had always done it and it worked so you didn't change something that worked, he would wear Green Clothes in the Spring and Brown in the fall when he was Fishing or hunting and it worked out for him fine.

Him and my Sister is both passed from this life now, but I can tell you what he took a lot of Big Bass out of the watear before he left.

The Truthfulness of the Blog

Out of Twelve Kids in the Family there is Three of us still Living, my Brother is 88, My Sister is 82, and I am 77. I called my Sister to talk to her and Eventually the Blog came up, so She told me that some of the things that I Wrote was not Accurate. I had said that a Tree at my Daughters place was 81 yrs old, but she said that she watched my Brother Plant it and it was Planted in 1934, well since I was born in 1934 that would make me and the Tree 77 Years old. and since I can't remember that far back I will agree to that. I don't remember just deliberately telling a Lie, it was just not a thing that we did, I don't like anybody that will Lie, and I don't think that God will hold anybody accountable for something that they say that turns out to not be true if they don't know that it is not true at the time they are telling it. Of course you can ask forgiveness for things like that, The Story I told was seen through a young Kid's Eyes, and to the best of my Recollection all the other things that I have Written is True, but when something happened 70 years ago it is not as easy to remember every detail as it is something that happened lately. I tried to Edit the part about Moonshine Stills and the more I tried the worse it got, so I finally said that that will have to do and quit.

We have a lot of Everything

Russellville is blessed with everything I reckon, what I am talking about is we have Banks and Branches everywhere, Downtown we have Six and out on the hwy 43 By-pass we have Eight, I reckon everybody has so much Money that we need that many, but Fourteen is a lot of Banks for a place no bigger than this.

Doctors, the same way, I am sure we have Thirty or more and these little Towns around us don't have any, we have three Funeral Homes and Boy you don't have any trouble getting Buried, there was a kind of funny thing happened about two or three Years ago, it was in the Paper, these two Men had a Wreck and it Killed them both, (that is not what I was saying was funny) well Akin Funeral Home beat a trail out there and got them both, and one of the Families wanted their loved one Cremated and the other one wanted theirs Buried, so Akin took the wrong one to Birmingham and had him Cremated, I never did hear anything about how that turned out but I suppose that it was a mess.

we used to have seven Furniture Stores and Seven Auto Parts Places, I don't think we have that many now, but we have a Mexican Furniture Store and about three Mexican Grocery Stores and no telling how many Churches, man we have it all.

we have all our Schools over here by me on the West side of Town, we have Four different Schools, and when School starts in the Morning and when it lets out in the Evening it is a Mad House, it's not safe to go down the Road, they need a six lane Hiway going into that Place, but it is rated right up there with the best, I know when these companys come down and build a Plant and bring a CEO from up North to Operate it, usually when the Company replaces him he stays here, they don't want to go back up North, too many mean People up there.

Pass the Gas Please

My Daddy was a short Man about 5' 9" or maybe 5'10" anyhow he was 52 inches around the Waist, in other words he had a big Belly, the reason was he liked to Eat, his Pants all had a Black place in Front from the Stirring Wheel of the Car rubbing his Belly, he would wear an old Felt Hat that he probably bought to wear to Church once upon a time, but Ya'll all know how they look after several years of every day wearing, well that is the way his looked.

after I got Married and moved to Russellville, every Year when the Christmas Season was approaching the City would start a S.T.I.R Program, and that stood for Save Trade In Russellville, for every dollar you spent the Merchants would give you a Ticket with a lot of Numbers on it and Christmas Eve they would have the Drawing and they would give away a new Car.

The Ford Dealer usually supplied the New Car to be given away, strangely enough the Ford Dealers Name was Ford Grissom, well this went on for several Years and finally they had a Drawing and they gave out the winning Number and it seemed like it took forever for somebodyto find the Ticket and claim the Car, people really had a lot of Tickets by the final Drawing, finally somebody hollered that they had it and came up to claim it and you guessed it, Ford Grissom the Ford Dealer won the Car.

Boy everybody was mad, and I think that that was about the last drawing they held Downtown, Wal-Mart came to Russellville and everybody loves them to Death, they are about the highest place around to buy Groceries but I go up there and buy mine because they have them little Buggys you can ride and a Basket on it and I get me one of them because I can't stand up very long.

well they had built a Four Lane By-Pass around Russellville Years ago and Russellville slowly dried up and there was nothing but a bunch of empty Stores Downtown because every body moved out on the Four Lane, then the Mexicans moved in, now they (the Mexicans) have several Stores Down town and what they didn't open as Stores they rented them to start a Church in, Russellville went Wet in the last Election, but we don't have to worry about anybody having a Liquor Store Downtown because you can't have one in so many feet of a Church and there is a Church on about every Corner.

I want to go back a litttle ways, one Day when they were having all the big Crowds for Christmas Shopping my Daddy came to town, he probably had on a pair of Overalls and that Hat and he said that he was Walking down the Sidewalk and there was lots of People around, and he met a man that looked as bad as he did and he said that just as the man got even with him, he passed the Gas, and my daddy said lots of People heard it, then the old man took two or three steps and stopped and turned around and put his Hands on both Hips and looked at him just like he was disgusted to death, you see he laid it on my Daddy like he was sorry and not fit to be around people, of course my Daddy just kept Walking but I thought that was a pretty good one.

I liked to Fish

I have always liked to Fish, never had caught anything big enough to Eat until I got Married, I rented a house on Marlin Street in Russellville, I remember the Rent was $30.00 dollars a month, I had a Brother in Law that liked to Fish and every evening when we would get in from Work we would grab that Car Hood Boat and go to number six Lake.

I worked as a molder, I would make Molds all day and about 1 Oclock they would start that Old Blast Furnace and we had to carry the Metal from the Blast furnace over to where we had the Molds sitting and we would pour the metal into a Hole, we called it a Gate, we poured Cast Iron and it about 2000 degrees hot.

I made several different things, one thing I would make was Gas Burners. that molding will kill you, when I got off I was about too tired to drive home, but I did and then we would go Fishing.

we would go fishing just about every Evening and one day my Wife told me that this Fishing was going to stop, and I slacked off a little, we would go out there and the Bass would be Flopping and Rolling in the Water, and we would always catch a few.

I used a Devil Horse to Fish with and one Evening I remember this Bass came up under it and knocked it up above the water and then he rolled and slapped it with his Tail and knocked it about 4 or 5 Feet.

then a Man moved in next Door to me and he liked to Fish, so me and him would go about every Saturday, my Wife and his Wife were good Friends so she didn't say anything else about this Fishing is going to stop. we would get a hold of some of the strangest Boats, we would borrow the Car Hood Boat from my Brother in law, this was about 1965, then he got one made out of Plywood and had a 5 horse tiller Motor sitting in the middle of it and a shaft was fastened to the Motor with a universal Joint and this ran through a pipe out through the Bottom of the Boat, boy it made a Wave.

when me and him got in the Car Hood Boat there was about 3 inches of the side above the Water, and we would get so bored that I remember one day we went over and got the Boat and went Fishing and it was Snowing, we had to be Crazy, another time we went and caught 3 Fish and didn't have a Stringer so we had a piece of Rope and we run it through their Gills and tied them on and threw them out, we finished Fishing and loaded up and got nearly Home and I said "Buck did you put them Fish in the Boat?" and he said no, so I stopped and went back there and looked and we had dragged them down the HWy and there was three Fish heads and Gills was all that was left.

it got better, I finally bought me a semi-V bottom with a 25 horse Johnson, I would go to Wilson Dam and Fish and I could catch from 3 to 6 Catfish and they were never over 7 or 8 inches long, then in 1985 I bought me a real Boat, a wide Flat Bottom with a 35 horse Johnson, that is the best Boat for Fishing you can buy.

I decided I would get one of the "Brothers" to go with me and show me how to Fish, well we would go to Cane Creek and put the Boat in and go down the River to two Big White Rocks on the South Bank and we would fish.
we used mostly Chicken Livers, but then we tried Worms and that worked alright so we got to where we would bring 2 Butter Bowls and we would put in and go across the River and get out on the other Bank and where the River had been out of Banks there was Silt, and you could rake the Silt back and you could pick up 8 or 10 worms, they were about 4 inches long and you could have enough to fish all day in just a few Minutes. Rudy called the worms them TVA Worms.

One day it was hot and Rudy caught about a 2 pounder and he would let his hook drag the Bottom but I always fished straight down, let it down to the Bottom and then reel up 2 rounds, well Rudy stood up and reeled the Fish in and when he got it close to the Boat he lifted his Rod and was going to swing it in, well it came in and hit him and stuck one of them side Fins in behind his Knee Cap, man he got sick.

then I got another Man started to Fishing and I learned him all the tricks and we would go every Saturday, I remember me and him went 17 Saturdays in a row plus Labor Day, I only remember 3 times out of 5 or maybe 6 Years that we went and didn't catch Fish, it is all how you fix up and knowing how to use it, the most we ever caught in one day was 81, we couldnt shut the Livewell Door.


you go to the River and you will see these Boats running up and down the River and they don't catch anything, Me and Lowell were sitting along about the big White Rocks Fishing and there was another Boat close by and two men came up the River in a Boat and they stopped and talked to the men that was fishing there close to us and we could hear everything they said, so they talked awhile and then said "we are going Home and come back when they are Biting," Me and Him had 24, so you can Fish or ride, but you can't do both and catch anything.

we drifted down the River and we would go about a half Mile and Crank up and pull up and drift down again, stayed at the same place until Eleven O'Clock and go home, we would start at six in the Morning,it got to where we would give the Fish away, I had all I needed to last all Winter so we would give them away.

I finally got Old and had to have both Knees replaced and then I wasn't able to Launch the Boat and my Friend Died, and so I sold the Boat after keeping it twenty one Years and quit fishing, but my son ""Engineered Garden" took me and his Step Son fishing one day, he can't catch Catfish but he can catch Scaly fish and we got there at six AM and stayed until Eight Thirty AM and we had caught 15 that would have weighed I am sure 42 pounds or more. Remember it is the way you fix your Hook and Line whether you catch anything or not.