Sunil,

First thanks for the heads up on the meeting, I simply must attend! I hope to be an owner by then not just a guy remembering the "old days".

Second I think we have a lot in common my friend. My family is actually from PA which is part why I took that job cause I knew the mountains and rivers from Lehigh to Schuylkill all the way to the Susquehanna and back to the Delaware. I wanted my boy and my wife to learn about the woods and mountains and that is hard to teach stuck in DFW.

As a young one I grew up in Jacksonville Florida which I have not visited since the early 80s it is a much bigger place today I am told. Back then every dagon apartment complex had ponds full of fish. Mostly LMB and Black Bullheads and tons of brim big ones too. Had to teach myself dad was a 7 day a week workoholoic and mom was a city girl. I tied on hooks with two over hand knots for my first few years!

Eventually I learned the basics on my own and with my friends. Those were good days but something was missing. One summer we visited my grandparents in Jonestown PA (that is north of Minersville which is close to Pottsville) and I caught my first small mouth bass.

It was about 8 inches but was in the Little Schuykill River (a place I can tell you how to find only I think my family knows, in all the years I never saw another person there). That little fish went from up stream to down steam in a second, turned sideways in the current and pulled like a LMB twice the size. At 11 my first love was not a cute girl it was Mr. Bronzeback!

I don't think they can make it in a pond in Texas too bad I have to go up to like Texoma or our place in Arkansas to find them. I mean I don't hate LMB and I like catching them but head to head a SMB is pound for pound a lot more fish in my opinion.

That pond I mentioned from Highschool was in primrose and looked like a dump in a old coal slush bank but it was really good water full of brim. We took a lot of trips to the river and had it full of CC and SMB.

It was also full of Carp as a teen the drill was, go to the slush dam as we called it and take a burlap bag. Catch a dozen small brim and put them in the sack in the water (poor boys bait bucket). Put out a brim on a line on a rod and play with teh carp with a ultralight. We would put bread on and cast with no weight the carp took it right off the top.

Did that every evening during my high school years before I joined the army. Most nights you would get a dozen carp in the 2-3 pound range off the top on an ultra light I learned a lot about how to play a fish that way. I would nail two or three nice smallies each night too.

They never stop biting, check this I had some old style eagle claw pattern 30 hooks not made since the 50 they were my grand dads. One day got this smallie, hook in the bone of his mouth can't get it out, cut the line and let him go. Next night toss a gill under the same log, nail another SMB looks familiar, you guessed it hook still in his mouth. This time I got it out for him. So not 24 hours later he bit again even with a hook in him!

I read about LMB that stop biting as they get old and non aggressive. I will tell you this if you live where SMB will live well they DO NOT suffer from the same issue. There are two fish I dearly love above all others, in Freshwater it is the SMB and in salt it is the snook. Pound for pound both have very few equals. Now if I could just make a hybrid snook that would live in a pond, :rolleyes:

Nice to meet you Sunil! If I get up your way I would be happy to share some old family spots with you, where in PA are you from?

Jack Spirko
www.jackspirko.com