^Tn^Z^Ei*] - Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission

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Master Angler of Sullivan County Veteran Caught The Big Ones With Cheap Tackle, Using Only Worms As Bait He lived with his old, gray-haired wife in an isolated frame house in the most thinly populated section of Sullivan County, which all together has only enough people to make a goodsized borough. During trout seasons he spent the daylight hours fishing. In my many years of angling I have known a number of men very adapt at catching trout, but this friendly old fellow in the "sticks" could give the best of them a handicap and beat them any day in the season at hooking "speckled beauties." How he did it, I do not know, for I never had the privilege of seeing him in operation along a trout stream. In fact, he plainly shunned companionship when it came to trout fishing. I suspect others cramped his style, so he preferred to be alone when visiting his favorite holes and riffles in the Sullivan County streams adjacent to his lonely place. I recall my first visit to this old chap's stamping grounds. His step-son took me and my good friend, Doc, there early in this particular trout season with the definite promise we'd enjoy excellent trout fishing. Our host's old mother, second wife of the master angler of whom I am writing, had ready for us when we arrived a very inviting breakfast of buckwheat cakes and canned sausage. I remember how she bustled around the big farmhouse kitchen that crisp morning and how I marveled at her activity. Even then she was so old she was quite stooped and one had to shout to make himself understood, for her hearing was almost entirely gone. Her husband, several years her junior although quite ancient in his own right, didn't permit us to linger long over that satisfying breakfast. "We better be gittin' out on those streams," he said as he pushed back the antique plank-bottom kitchen chair on which he $[at. "There are some guys from over in the coal regions up here this spring and we'd better beat 'em to the good holes." Dawn had but recently broken when we stepped out on the back porch. I had ben wondering what sort of tackle the old angler used but wasn't too surprised when he lifted from the corner of the porch, where its tip rested against the weatherboards, a steel telescope rod such as could be purchased By WILLIAM BOYD THE OLD ANGLER at any cut-rate sporting goods store for $1.98. The old fellow stepped down off the porch and I was curious to see what he was going to do about a creel, for he had his rod in his hand and obviously was all set to start out. Then he reached under the porch steps and produced a pail with a wire handle. On it was a paper label indicating the bucket originally had contained something which his old helpmate had used in the kitchen. I inquired if he intended carrying his minnows in the bucket and he replied: "Naw, son, that there's my fish holder. I like my trout nice and fresh when I get 'em home, so I keep 'em alive in this here pail." And later in the day I learned this was the truth and that he hadn't been kidding me, which I had suspected at the time. Further, he wasn't using minnows. All he had for bait was red worms dug in the abandoned barnyard on his place. These he carried in a baking powder can stuffed in his overall pocket. I wonder, too, what he was going to do about negotiating the streams he fished, for on his feet were a pair of battered and patched hunting gums which reached only half way up the calves of his legs. An old black felt hat with fish hooks stuck through the band completed his fishing attire. As we traversed the well beaten p a . leading from the back porch to $ dusty road in front of the house, old man gave us instructions. L "I calculate you fellows better P 5 *. Little Muncy this mornin', and if n" e ' ain't hittin' there try them two trit^ taries," and he gave us minute instr^jj tions on the location of two si* 13 streams to which he referred. Then and there he left us and ^ didn't see him again until late aft e noon. "The old rascal!" exclaimed his st e Pj son. "He doesn't want to be bother e with us, but I know he is sending to the best trout waters in these V aT \ Now if either of you want to lay small wager that he won't have ni c I trout at the end of the day than tJ1 three of us combined I'll take y° bets and give you liberal odds." He told us what he knew about & stepfather's fishing practices as ^ three of us walked together down *| dusty road toward Little Muncy Cref^ "He has never taken me with b 1 ^! either," our friend said, "but a j \ seasons ago I stumbled upon him Wi* 1 the two of us were fishing up he He hadn't invited me to fish with *^ so I knew he didn't want me too n e jj. He hadn't spotted me, for I was qui e •* fishing a pool when I heard him ^ stream, so I slipped into the un A brush of the stream's bank & watched him. "Pop's just like an Indian in \. woods both when he's fishing and h u vV ing, so I wasn't surprised when I s \ him crawl on his stomach to a si 0 .. pool where the water swirled ufl a . the submerged roots of an old & stump. «j "He looked at the worm on his n° g and then adjusted that old teles'^ rod of his until it wasn't more than feet long. Then he reached out c 3 ously with one arm and dropped . hook into the water around the \ A roots. In only a few seconds he I | as quietly flipped a dandy brook tr J out on the bank by his side, f 1 ^ back to where his water-filled pail ^ standing, took the trout carefully the hook, and put it in the pail- j. "Believe it or not, the old boy to"". l "~0{ three more beautiful brookies rookies oU* o that small hole while I watched &n u . , iii my hiding place. Then I sneaked a^' tf PENNSYLVANIA ANG 1, I ;1 : ^ < Ms' •>ir *r. f», tie M •d '1* 1 fed I k I
I i° r I didn't want him to know I had 'een watching him." I was quite successful that day and a s proud of the seven nice trout in /ty creel when I returned to the house Pile the sun was just going down 5c k of the green hill on the west side the valley. ,,The old angler was trudging down J 1 e road from the opposite direction I neared his place. His step-son §3 Doc were seated in the shade a tree in the front yard. I noticed ^ e old fellow's overalls above his batged hunting gums weren't wet, and Pondered how he managed to fish stream, which he certainly had to u°ss at times, without getting in over ^ low shoe tops. paper-labeled pail which served Pa as a fishing creel swung from one i&d and his old telescope pole with 1 cheap reel was carried in the other. P looked just as he did when we ^ted in the morning and appeared M the least bit tired after his day's |j Well, boys, how'd yu make out?" /inquired as he approached. He nodhp approvingly as we proudly disced our trout. "Perty good," he l d, and started for the back porch. j,Thinking perhaps we could show JJ* 6 old fellow up, for he hadn't said a INI about his catch, one of us stop- W* him before he went around the . r tier of the house with an inquiry to his luck. L I'm goin' to dump 'em in a tub," , e Replied, "come along if you want to em. / declare I never saw a nicer catch 1 brook trout anywhere. The old i a p's pail was so full of fish they were ° u bled around inside it, and yet he B only the day's limit catch. While I didn't measure any of them, EMBERr-1949 I am certain he didn't have a trout under a foot long. He didn't appear to think this was anything unusual and commented only on one fish he had. This was a 14-inch brookie that was the prettiest thing of its kind I had ever seen. Its fins were a brilliant red and its belly was only a slightly less bright red. "That there's a real old native brookie," he explained calmly as he held the live fish in his two hands. It certainly was a beauty, broad and heavy, beautifully colored because it was still alive. Three or four times since then I have fished with—or rather near—this skillful old angler, and always he returned with a remarkable catch of trout. This is the only kind of fishing the old man does, doubtless because trout are the only game fish near his isolated home. However, on one occasion he told me that many years before, when he was a young man, he worked in Pittsburgh steel mills and spent his vacations fishing for big game fish of one kind or another. Eventually the nostalgic call of his boyhood home in the mountains of remote Sullivan County took him back, and since then he had no desire to be anywhere else. His means evidently being sufficient for the simple needs of him and his wife, he remained contented and happy, fishing in the spring and early summer and hunting in the autumn. Twice I hunted with him, once for small game and again for deer. I found him almost equally as skillful at hunting as he was at fishing, probably because he had done so much of it that he knew the habits of wildlife in his familiar mountains and woods. The hospitality he and his wife displayed was ample evidence that they enjoyed the company of others even though they must have spent weeks at Sullivan County has some very good trout streams.—Boyd We found the fishing in Little Muncy quite satisfactory.—Boyd a stretch without companionship other than that which each provided the other. Deer season, the step-son told us, was like old home week at the Sullivan County spot, for year after year a party of deer hunters made the home of the old folk its headquarters, the old man acting as captain of the crew. Many a big buck fell before the guns of hunters whom he directed, for he knew all of the crossings and could place the "watchers" where the deer would come out to them when the "drivers" whom he led barked like dogs to start the deer moving from their forest hideouts. Tarnished brass, nickel and copper spoons can be instantly restored to the original brightness by rubbing them with good household silver polish. If the polish isn't handy use a paste made of common salt and vinegar. Rust should be removed with a piece of fine emery cloth. Spit the tail of a pork rind to give it additional wriggle when it is drawn through the water. Of some 150,000,000 pounds of fresh water fish produced in the United States annually, nearly two-thirds comes from the American waters of the Great Lakes. A good casting reel is built with the same precision as a watch and deserves like treatment and care. Kill Less—Catch More
Page 1 and 2: lENNSYLVSSiA ^Tn^Z^Ei*]
Page 3: COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA PENNSY
Page 7 and 8: ^* or hackle tips, which ever the t
Page 9 and 10: A *W enjoyable fishing arid for bes
Page 11 and 12: JJ e mies, of protection from flood
Page 13 and 14: C\ Hurrah For Little Giant Heeby-Je
Page 15 and 16: •"Ompt Action Saves Fish At Stell
Page 17 and 18: *«irod, Lester W., 316 Water Ave.,
Page 19 and 20: d leaver, James, 355 North St., New
Page 21 and 22: ^NANGO COUNTY Anderson, Don P., 612
Page 23 and 24: tii or ot it> is :e! Spinning In En
Page 25 and 26: Westmoreland County Junior Conserva
Page 27 and 28: More Industry PLAN For "PENNSYLVANI

^Tn^Z^Ei*] - Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission

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