Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-07-31
Fishing Then and Now.
lPcck's Sum-

Ill llllS country VINO 40 not ike 10 60
fishing. Many do not go once in ten
years, but all the time they think
they will 90 next week or next month
and they keep thinking of the fun
they used to have thirty or forty
years ago, when they were boys. An
old man who had fished-cvery year
for fifty years, and enjoyed it, came
into Il bushes place the other day
limping, with one hand on the small
Of his back, and looking as if he
wanted to die.
"Been fishing again, ell ?" said Il
clerk. "What luck ?"
80, no luck to speak of. The fact
is, my fishing days are over" said
the old man with a sigh, as pain
took him in the back. " 'Tain't what
it used to be. When l was boy |
would get up before daylight and
walk four miles barefooted, with a
tamarack pole and a strong line, and
with piece of pork-rind for bait,
| would catch fish till the cows came
home. There were no rods and reels
in those days, and 10 artificial flies,
that | know of. We would get a
bite, and throw the fish over our
heads, out on land, and see him flop.
| could catch enough fish for our
family and all the neighbors, and en-
joy it. Later years when | became
man, l had the fishing fever just as
bad, and | would go hundred miles
to fish, and spend barrel of money,
and work hard for a week, and it
would do me good. | would be heav-
Ter and stronger when | came back,
and my brain would work like a
steam engine. But now while have
the fever just as bad, l am all used
up. 1t takes me all the fall and win
ter to get over my aches and pains,
to get ready for the spring fishing,
and the first day 90 out l am used
up for month. Bones and muscles
that did not know | had years ago,
ache now so | am perfectly sure
where they are. ! am too old
to walk much, and too rheumatic
to ride in a boat long, and | have TO
be petted like a child. | have to en-
ploy man to row the boat, put on
my bait and take otfmy fish, aud my
fingers and thumbs are getting so
rheumatic that can hardly turn the
handle to the reel. Another year
and will have my hired man reel
in my fish while | sit in a chair OH
the bank, and then | want to die.
When man gets so it makes his
back ache to cast his bait in the wa
ter, and his arms ache when he pulls
in fish, his legs ache when he
stands up, his neck ache when he
turns around, his head ache when
the sun shines, and everything aches
when it is cloudy and damp, and his
stomach seems to all drop out an
hour or two before lunch time, he is
played out as a fisherman, and ought
to know it. l shall never go fishing
again, never"
80, you hadn't ought to give up
fishing, uncle said the clerk. Il see
by the papers fish are biting splen-
didly out in Waukesha county. One
man caught a hundred pounds of
black bass in Okauchee yesterday.
"No" said the old man, as he took
his hand of the small OF his back and
Strengthened up to try his back and
see if it was broke. "Say, you pack
up my rod and things and get them
down to the two O'Clock train, and
will 90 and take Turkish bath, and
90 out there for day or two. If
could catch one fish and feel Just as |
did when | was boy, | would give
a thousand dollars. 10 feel the same
freedom that 1 did then, with the old
tamarack pole, walking around in the
wet grass barefooted, looking INTO the
water and seeing the fish lazily watch
ing me as though they thought | was
10 account on earth, and then MOTTO
ing the difference of expression on
the mug Of the fish after | had him
out on the bank.
81 wouldn't dare wade in stream
now, and get my feet wet, because |
would catch cold that would lay
me up for month. | used to be
wet from Genesis to Revelations six
days in week, and l never knew
what it was to have cold. | have
carried string of fish that weighed
more than did, a mile, and whistle
all the way. L have been so tired |
would go to sleep while scaling fish
in the old wOodshed, and l was as
happy as a person could be. But it is
all changed now. Even pleasure is
hard work, and l realize that | must
stop fishing forever. But say, hurry
up and get them things to the depot"
and the old man who thought he
never would fish any more went out
to tackle store to buy hooks, and
went to the depot, forgetting to take
his Turkish bath. o, they never
give up fishing.