Fishing Korea

Have a good weekend everybody – tight lines!

Back when I was about twelve-years-old I was fishing the neighborhood pond with my older brother and a friend. Fishing those days pretty much entailed using a Zebco-202 if you were lucky enough to have one, or simply tying some line to a long thin branch and fishing with a red-and-white clip bobber and a small hook. The bait was almost always night crawlers, which were in ample supply under the leaves piled up against the neighbor’s curb across the street. “The pond” we grew up around was more or less a drainage area for rainwater.

It was shallow and weedy, and had fish such as pickerel, bass, bluegill, and bullhead catfish (hornpout is what we called them). I was barely old enough to remember Old Man Gilmore cutting it out with his bulldozer and its subsequent creation after the first rains. I was amazed to see tiny fish swimming in it a year later. I must have been about seven-years-old and I asked my next-door-neighbor Mr. Cullenberg how those fish had got there?  He wisely explained they were carried in by ducks and other waterfowl, but I still didn’t understand, so he explained that ducks and geese primarily spent most of their time in the water feeding and swimming, consequently, the ducks would pick up fish eggs or small fry in their feathers and carry them from pond to pond as they looked for new places to feed and shelter. Since their feathers stayed moist, some of the eggs and fry would survive, and fish would appear where there were none before. Mr. Cullenberg was a very patient man, and this was probably my first recollection of having a serious conversation with an adult on a subject where I wasn’t in trouble for something. So, this one particular day years later I was fishing with my brother and friend, when my brother started yelling he had a fish on. Sure enough, his pole was bent way over and he was reeling furiously. Tom was older and had his own paper route, which allowed him to purchase a fairly nice Shakespeare spinning rod and reel combo, as well as an assortment of lures like Hula-Poppers, broken-back Rebels, and Jitter-bugs. Today he was trying out a red and white “Dare-Devil” spoon, when something engulfed it. None of us had any idea what he had on as it hadn’t broke the water yet, but we could tell it was a good fighter. I assumed it must be a pickerel, because they were the most aggressive fish in the pond and grew to fairly good size, even in our little pond, which was only a couple of acres in size. I was wrong. Tommy finally landed it, and the three of us stood there dumbfounded. “What the heck is it?” my brother wondered aloud. “I’m not sure,” replied the neighbor. “It looks kind of like a weird bass,” I offered. We were all so excited we quit fishing and rode our bikes home to measure it and show it to our dad. This fish measured 14” long, was 10” tall, and weighed about two pounds. It was mostly black with a white belly, and had big fins on top and bottom. We thought we had discovered a new species and couldn’t wait to see the look on Dad’s face. We packed it in a plastic bag with some ice and waited for him to come home. While we waited, we speculated on what it might be. Words like “mutant” and “monster” were spoken. “New species” was mentioned a couple of times. Not too far-fetched for me since I had the seen the miracle of the fish appearing from nothing years before. Dad got home and we could barely contain our excitement. “Look what Tommy caught!” I yelled. “We don’t know what it is,” he shouted, running with the bag up to Dad, who had just pulled in the yard in his GMC dump-truck. Dad calmly took the bag, peered inside, removed the fish, and said “Holy Smokes, that’s the biggest calico bass I’ve ever seen!” I was at once disappointed and curious. Disappointed because my new species theory was blown to bits, but curious about what the heck a calico bass was and what was it doing in our little pond? It sounded exotic. “Calico… was that some far-off country somewhere? Was it in Mexico? How far did these ducks fly anyway?” Dad explained that calico bass were fairly rare in Massachusetts and that Tommy had caught a fine one. He took it in the house to clean it, but not before mentioning if we caught any more, to be sure and bring them right home.

  Since those days, I’ve caught crappie all over the United States, the biggest one coming from Draper Lake outside Oklahoma City, which might have went three pounds. It was so big, I thought I’d caught another largemouth bass, but it looked stranger than most, so I took a picture of it before releasing it. I showed the picture at Jones’ Bait and Tackle on Sooner Road that evening. “Holy crap that’s a big crappie!” was the response I got. I was chastised for not bringing it in to be weighed as it may have been a State record. I didn’t know any better. Hell, all I knew was I had caught another “mutant” bass. I’m sure the picture is probably still there.

Crappie comes in two species, White and Black. They are members of the sunfish family, and though not as popular as the black bass or other species, are still a much sought-after game fish in many parts of the United States. Some of the other regional names besides calico bass include: paper mouth, strawberry bass, spotted crappie, silver crappie, bachelor, newlight, specks, white perch, sac-a-lait, speckled perch, silver perch, silver bass, crawpie, grass bass, moonfish, Oswego bass, shiner,  bachelor perch, and freckles to name a few, I’m sure there are some more names… “mutant” and “monster” comes to mind.

Black crappie       White crappieI wish they had these here in Korea. Crappie is fine eating.