Fishing with grandchildren.

[curtis41]

Was fishing in my back pond with 2 of the grandchildren. The younger one caught a nice 4 lb 10 1/2 ounce largemouth bass . W e caught a few more, mostly about 3-4 pounds. Too cold for the bream so far here. Did stock the pond two years ago with 100 channel catfish. Without a net to keep them safe, bass had about 99 catfish to eat. My granddaughter caught an 8 inches early on the back pond, but we have not caught another channel catfish there in two years.

Most of my fishing was in Miami and the Keys. Mostly red snapper and mangrove snapper. We used a 2-mantle Coleman lantern to attract the shrimp, and my dad used a large throw net with lead sinkers around it. On a good night, we went home with 1-2 30-gallon washtubs full, less the ice. We also used to have contests to see who could open coconut with the fewest number of hits. My best efforts were 1-2 hits, on the larger end, on pavement, or better yet, the sidewalk. We ran an ice pick through 2 or 3 eyes of the coconut, then drain out and drink the coconut milk. We then cracked open the actual nut and slides it up and toasted it in the oven. Most of these coconuts did not make it into mother's coconut cake. :-). Showing my age, we used to listen until 11:00 P.m. to hear Moon Over Miami play on the radio, after some 110 decibel Elvis Presley records. Back then, my dad was foreman at Ted Williams, Inc. there out by the airport. They made $300 custom tuna rods and other great fishing tackle rods. Most of them had 10-12 coats of lacquer, hand and brush applied. My dad always told me the earth was about 75% or so covered with water. This, of course meant we were to fish 75% of the time. Great times back then and memorable.