The Old Man and His Bluegill Fish
About 35 years ago, I started fishing in Clouse Lake, a small lake just south of Somerset, Ohio. In fact, I used a fly rod when I first started fishing there. I was fishing one day when I saw an older man trying to put a small plastic boat on his car. He had been fishing all day and was tired. He also used a rod with a fly on it. We started talking and found out that we lived about 10 miles apart. He went to school in Pleasantville. At the end of our talk, he told me he'd call me sometime and we'd go fishing together.
I thought, "Yeah, he'll probably call me." Imagine my surprise when he called me two days later and asked if I wanted to go fishing with him the next day.
Earl and I became good friends. We fished many times in Clouse and just about everywhere else we could find that had water. He was very good at fly fishing. Earl was perfect except for one thing: he liked to catch bluegill. He loved catching Bluegill, though. He took only a few seconds to show me how to clean bluegills. This is what he did. He started by getting his cutting board and fillet knife. The fish would be scaled by him. Second, he would cut around the head but not all the way through. He would leave just a small piece of meat right under the head. Then he would twist and pull on the head, and all of the insides would come out at once. He was faster than anyone I had ever seen at cleaning bluegill.
One day, I made fun of Earl for fishing for bluegill. I told him that the only reason anyone would fish for bluegill is because they couldn't catch a bass. I have to admit that I had seen him catch bass with his flyrod while he was fishing for bluegill. Also, Earl told me he could catch bass whenever he wanted to. I just laughed. So Earl put on a bigger fly and threw it about a dozen times. A bass came out of the water. It was a bass, and it was about 6 and a half pounds. He just smiled at me and threw it back without saying anything. To say the least, I was shocked. He tied his little fly back on and went back to fishing for bluegill. The rest of the day, I just sat there in shock.
I learned two things that day. The first was not to say anything bad about people who like to fish for bluegill. The second was that just when you think you have things under control, an old guy will show you otherwise. By the way, I never made fun of Earl again about how he fished for bluegill. Not long after that, Earl died, and I was one of the last people he asked for. My friend, I miss you.
Did you know that a large mouth bass and a black bass are not really basses? They are related to sunfish.
On RT668 from Somerset, Ohio, you can get to Clouse Lake. There are some nice bass there, and I've seen some right below the dam that were about 5 pounds. On the south side of the lake, there is a boat ramp. A smaller boat is better.
