First Fish

I must have been 6 or so judging from the car, a 1966 Chevy Impala, which looks like it had a few miles and years on it.  A great family cruiser.

This tiny bream, or perch – some call them sunfish – was the first fish I remember catching.  I caught it with a cheap Zebco rod and reel using a balled up piece of bread for bait in a pond on the site of the historic Old Mill in North Little Rock where I grew up.  The Old Mill is famous for appearing in one of the opening scenes in Gone with the Wind.

The Old Mill, down on Lake #2 is a pretty good walk from my house, so I must have carried that fish around with me for a while.  I’d have thrown it back, but wanted my picture first.

I started fishing a few years before – around ’67 or ’68 with my grandpa up in Northwest Arkansas.  He’d take me and my sister out to Beaver Lake, 23,000 acres of freshwater near Rogers, AR extending into Missouri, and Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma to fish for Crappie.  Yes, that’s the name of the fish, pronounced \ˈkrä-pē\.  We’d rent a boat with an outboard motor and spend the day fishing with Crappie Jigs and live minnows.  It was fun, but I don’t remember catching any fish until I was a little older.  Gagan (my grandpa) reeled ’em in one after the other.