I posted this months ago over at BBG, It's the best I can do at explaining how I feel about my ponds.
How about a true story that reads like a fairy tale?
In the early 1970's, my family liked to go camping at a little campground in the county where we lived. It was an awesome place, with 6 ponds/lakes, a playground, concession stand, ballfields, 90 acres of woods with hiking trails, dedicated swimming pond with diving boards and lifeguards, bathhouse with hot showers.... it was a weekend getaway for a lot of the local folks. It was owned by an older, local couple, who had built it all themselves, and took pride in maintaining it.
I remember camping there when I was so little that my mother held my hand when we walked, for fear that I would wander over into one of the ponds. She was then, and still is to this day, a Bluegill angler extraordinaire. In many families, it is the dad who is the outdoorsman, and while my father likes to fish, it is my mother who harbors a true passion for it. She instilled in me her love of this fiesty panfish, and the knowledge needed to pursue it.
The years passed, as they are prone to do, but we still camped there, and the Bluegill fishing was always great. The older couple who had built up the place thought it was becoming too much work, and decided to sell it so that they might enjoy retirement. The new owners made some changes, more bad than good, but still the Bluegill fishing was superb.
By now I was a teenager, and felt I no longer needed, or desired, my mother's tutelage where fishing was concerned. I fished many different waters, and although I caught fish, they never quite measured up to the old campground's Bluegills. The fish caught there were not only bigger, they were consistently bigger.... a rare combination.
More years passed, and the campground was showing it's age. The effort, and expense needed to maintain it proved too much for the owners, and it was sold yet again. This time, the new owners were not locals.. they moved here, a community of less than 2000 people, from Los Angeles, CA. City folks, whose family dream was to own and operate a campground in the country. They were ambitious, they were brave, and more importantly to me and this story, they had a very cute daughter three years younger than myself.
The new owners operated the campground for many years, and still I remained, although now, a passion other than Bluegills accounted for my presence. I proposed to the cute LA girl who lived at that campground, and this past August we celebrated our 22nd year together. We have two boys of our own, ages 8 and 11, and I'm doing my best to pass on to them what I've learned regarding my favorite fish. They are rapidly becoming accomplished anglers in their own right.
The campground? well, it's been closed for years. I still fish it, and spend many an hour cutting brush, mowing, and trying to keep it from growing wild. I am raising Hybrid Bluegills in the former swimming pond, and they are getting some size to them. My wife and I recently signed the paperwork to purchase the campground property from her parents.
Now, if there's anyone still reading this, is where my favorite memory of 2011 comes in. Earlier this Spring, my parents, now long since retired themselves, brought their travel trailer back to that old campground to spend a few days. I cleaned up a campsite for them, turned on the well and the electricity, and they were set. The boys and I went over one evening after work, so they could teach "granny" all about the hybrids that dad was raising. We took our gear, met granny, and started fishing.
It didn't take me long to see that catching big Bluegills was not going to be the high point of the evening, at least not for me. I put my rod up, sat down and just watched and listened. Granny spent most of her time baiting hooks and removing fish, even though they told her it wasn't necessary. They laughed, shouted excitedly, bragged about who caught the biggest fish, and generally just carried on. As I watched the three of them interact with each other, I almost felt like I had traveled back in time, and was watching a scene from my own childhood.
I was a kid again, thanks to some simple bluegill fishing.
