Fishing for Fun and Family

One of my Favorite past times, now that I am retired, and for the most part, all my life has been fishing . I grew up fishing with my Dad and Grand-pa.  Fishing every week-in on the Broad River in S.C. and my Grand-pa's favorite past Ben Adams fish pond was a way of life and a real treat and a right of passage as a young boy, you paid $2.00 for adults and kids were free under 12 , for all day and the pond was stocked with catfish and carp . On Broad River we fished for fresh water turtles and catfish and I can remember some of the cooters (another name for the turtles) , being as big as a wash tub and big enough for us to get a ride on it's back before it became cooter stew , for which my Grand-pa was famous in our town for making and he also made the best catfish stew you ever tasted , folks use to come to his back yard when he was cooking catfish stew and they bring bowls to take home to eat. Have you ever ate cooter or catfish  stew?? I quickly learned as a young boy that fishing was not only a lot of fun, but it could provide a lot of food for the table. Growing up in the south that was a real plus. Well-- enough rambling about my childhood,I could go on all day about fishing and my adventures fishing as a young boy , and I could fill a volume of books about my fishing days as a grown-up and especially fishing with my boy's when they were growing up , they are fisherman now too, and love it as much as their Dad. Maybe one of these days I'll just sit down and write at least one book on the subjects.
  Today's story started with me mentioning to Ciejay that it looked like a good day to go fishing , and to my surprise she said "let's go", WOW  so it didn't take me but a minute or two to throw everything in the truck we'd need for fishing , and Ciejay quickly packed us a lunch and off we went . We decide to go to a little lake that we had pasted a hundred times on the way to and back from the Bamboo School and each time we pasted  I would say " I'm going to go fishing here some day " and today was the day . The lake sits at the bottom of a huge rock  mountain  with a few small huts around it , and a real nice place to stop the truck and a good place to throw out your line and just sit and enjoy the scenery and peace and quite and hope you get LUCKY and catch a fish , well we saw lots of scenery and enjoyed the peace and quiet , BUT!!!!!! no fish, even tho ,we did see some jumping , way over on the other side , which of course we could not get to. It was a beautiful day and we just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves and our time together ( fishing and spending time with Ciejay ,my sweet wife)  It don't get any better than that.

Just as we were getting ready to go , (I had drowned all my worms )  lol , we saw some folks over on the other side of the lake splashing around in the water and looking like they were having a fun time swimming . Ciejay said she saw them put in a net and look like they were herding the fish into it , well this got my attention, because in all my fishing days young and old , , I had never heard of HERDING fish into a net . I told Ciejay we just had to go take a look and see what they were doing and if it was working for them. . They were in the water when we got there , they had gallon jugs tied with ropes around their waist to  keep them a float, and each had a bamboo stick in their hands, and were beating the water as they swam. I just stood there in amazement watching  this family catching fish to feed themselves and  their neighbors as they said they were all related ,so they would share the catch with all. After swimming  a couple of times around the small pond , cut off from the rest of the lake and feed by a small canal, they had dug they came out of the water and Pa got back in and started gathering up the net , then up came the kids Mom and Dad and I was now witnessing  three generations , fishing together for fish to last them a week until the next week-in  and a time to repeat it all over again. I couldn't believe it but that net was full of fish . To me it looked like fun , but I'm sure to them it's just a necessity  of life. To keep from going home with no fish of our own ,I ask Ciejay to ask if they would sell us a couple , and they said they never sold any, they just shared them with friends and family so we ask again how much for 4 nice ones and they said the old Thai  thing "UP TO YOU ". Well ,Ciejay and I agreed that 60 baht( about$1.70 US)  would be a fair price and they were happy to sell them .  Well we were on our way home ,happy and with 4 fresh fish , and Ciejay said "what you want for dinner tonight?". To that I replied "Fried Fish and cole slaw and french fries and a Coke Zero." It don't get no better than that. Hope you enjoyed my rambling and my fish story , and again with all the lakes and streams and rivers here in Thailand , fishing is  just another reason why we're "Retired in Thailand and Loving It."


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