When
the annual smallmouth bass fishing contest at the High Woods store was
announced, the game was on! The sign-up lists were posted at the left of the
cash register in the kitchen. They were always
on white ruled paper divided by columns into three categories: Your Name, fish weight and fish length. The bass had to come from the Ashokan
Reservoir. [i]
Prize categories were first, second and third at the top, and, of course, the booby
prize for the smallest, most puny entry.
In addition, all entries would have to be brought into the Wilgus Store,
weighed on the store scale and measured with the store ruler. It started on the first day and ended on the
last permissible day of bass season, so it tended to run June through October.
There
was a strategy to keeping careful track of all the players. Everyone was concerned to be the first to
report their catch because it would provide a benchmark for others, and they
might end up with the booby prize and at least a year of teasing. One year it had happened to Shorty Benjamin who, luckily,
could counter with great good-natured style and a commanding voice which tended
to precede him into the store. When it
came to the yearly fishing contest, one and all wanted to be part of it. After the initial sign-up, all would check
back at least weekly to see who had turned in a good catch. There was an oral tradition in High Woods
consisting of bragging, weather forecasts, and remembrance of fishing past with
some serious exaggerations.
The
store kitchen was like a welcoming home, and people tended to gather there. Nearby
was a cooler holding beer and soda, and you could slide the cover aside, peer
in and select your favorite. It had
stopped working years ago, but Henry kept it going by filling it with ice
chipped off large blocks which were delivered every couple of days. The soft
drink side had a large range of flavors from the sweet orange of Tru-ade[ii]
to the spicy birch and root beers. Norman
had to be careful when stocking the cooler that no bottles exploded from sudden
contact with the ice. Mark remembers
standing around with the men in the store kitchen, drinking a birch beer and Listening
to Henry call Percy Hill a G-- D--- liar concerning his recent fishing escapades.
There
had been many adventures and miss-adventures among the High Woods fishing
fraternity. I say “fraternity” advisedly
since it was primarily men. There were a
few good fisher women who were in the contest, but the crowd in the kitchen
tended to be men while women gravitated towards the tables and chairs that
surrounded the dance floor. Almost everyone drank their beer or soda from an
eight ounce glass provided by Henry as drinking from the can or bottle was considered
childish or even impolite.
Henry
said that the Reservoir had its own weather.
Large lakes often can muster up a storm rather quickly. The air suddenly gets a yellow tint, and a
wind comes up. One day while fishing
with DeWitt Felton, Henry noticed a change, so he suggested that they go in
closer to shore. DeWitt said “I ain’t
afraid of no storm!”, and he kept on fishing.
There were rumbles of thunder, but DeWitt was still unruffled. Then, chance sent down a bolt of lightning
that hit the water, shot inland and took down a tree. Dewitt started rowing for his life, but the
boat made no progress. Henry then reminded
Dewitt they would have to lift the anchor in order to get anywhere.
Henry
had some good advice when it came to anchors.
He told a cautionary tale about a friend who used chain for his anchor
line. When a storm hit, he could not
lift the anchor as it had gotten wedged among rocks and roots, so he had to
ride out the whole storm, scared to death, in his little open boat. “Always use rope that can be cut in an emergency.”He
also advised to use an anchor with flukes because it is less likely to get
caught on the bottom.
People
had opinions on bait. Worms, of course,
of the “nightwalker” sort, crawfish, minnows, frogs and, at that time, dobsons
(now protected)[iii]
were all used. Then there was the matter
of rods and reels. Shorty Benjamin was a fly rod
user as was Percy Hill. Shorty said he
could pick a flower out of a lady’s hat at forty yards. Henry and most others used the Baitcaster.
There
were also techniques to fishing the Ashokan.
Chris Rafferty was a restless fisher who fished from the shore. He moved along quickly if they weren’t
biting. Henry would stay in one place
for quite a long time even taking a snooze while the Klang rode around its
anchor. After a time, he would declare
that it was time to move and catch whatever was available. It was better to catch Sunnies and Rockies
than nothing at all. [iv]
Here is a picture of Henry taking a break during a fishing trip to eat a banana. Henry said when he first brought bananas to sell in the store in the 1920's, some people in High Woods had never seen them before. He is sitting on the Klang with a fish net stowed behind him in the boat.
Time moved on through the summer. Tranquil moments on the reservoir could, in those days, be interrupted by a train headed up towards Big Indian. October would bring a new list of winners. Honors and Booby prize would be awarded when the gang would all meet bringing wives, children and anyone who happened by to a jolly Saturday Night Dance at the Wilgus Emporium.
[i]
The Ashokan Reservoir Native American for place of fish
[ii] ”Tru-Ade was a pasteurized,
non-carbonated soft drink. It was made with concentrated fruit juice and was
available in both orange and grape flavor. Tru-Ade went out of business in the
1970s
[iii]
Dobsonflies spend most of their life in the larval stage, during
which they are called hellgrammites, "grampus,"
"go-devils," or "crawlerbottoms", and are familiar to anglers who
like to use the large larvae as bait
Hellgrammites live under rocks at the bottoms of lakes, streams and rivers, and prey on
other insect
larvae with the short sharp pincers on their heads, with which they can also
inflict painful bites on humans. The larvae reach to 2" to 3" in
length, with gills all along the sides of their segmented bodies that allow
them to extract oxygen from water. From Wikipedia.
[iv] The
rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris, Ambloplites constellatus), also known as the
rock perch, goggle-eye, or red eye is a species of freshwater fish in the
sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. They are similar in
appearance to smallmouth bass but are usually quite a bit smaller.
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