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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

I CATCH MY FIRST FISH

When 1 was somewhere between 6 and 10 years old, I don’t remember just what age, 1 remember that
mama and Fay and Opal went fishing in the little stream that ran from what we call the Gabe Pond,
which over-flowed northward and went into the Hagan Bay. It ran across a small unimproved road that
went up to Mr. Paul and Aunt Nettie Pearce’s house, where there was an old wooden bridge and the
boards were separated far enough apart, that you could fish between the cracks in the bridge.

I got a big worm on my hook, and dropped it down between two boards on the bridge, and fished
underneath the bridge. To my surprise and delight, I soon had a fish on it and it is fortunate that the fish
was no bigger than it was, or I would have never been able to get him up through the crack in the bridge.

I had caught a fish which we always called a war-mouth perch, and this fish was about the size of a
man’s hand. There was barely enough width in that crack for me to pull him up through, but I got him
up and had caught my first fish. That set me on fire as far as going fishing, and fishing is something I
enjoyed doing up to my late 60’s or 70’s, when I sort of got out of the habit.

After I had bought the ranch at Wellborn, when Suzanne and Brad and Andy were kids, we would got
out to the lake which was situated on the ranch and we always caught a nice string of fish. Not long ago
I was asked by Brad, who is now 42 years old, if I really enjoyed going fishing or if it was just a matter
of taking them fishing because they enjoyed it so much. My reply to him was yes that I really enjoyed
both aspects of that because it is always nice to go fishing when you’re sure that you’re going to catch
fish, and that was an ideal way of getting to spend time with my children. Besides that, the fish that
came out of that lake, which is named McClellan Lake, were always good to eat, since the water was so
clean. That is the only thing 1 miss about no longer owning the ranch, which I sold two or three years

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