Hide, Horn, Fish, and Fowl: Texas Hunting and Fishing Lore

THE BIG FISH THAT DIDN’T GET AWAY

Nina Marshall Garrett 7978-ch03.pdf 10/6/11 8:16 AM Page 176 THE BIG FISH THAT DIDN’T GET AWAY by Nina Marshall Garrett  In 1938, when I was eleven years old, my family moved from Arizona back to Oklahoma to Lake West, a community about ten miles south of Boswell and three miles north of the Red River. While we were in Arizona for three-and-a-half years, my brothers and father used the irrigation system on the farm where they worked. They were impressed with how one could water the crops at a time when the weather was dry and thus have a sure way of having a successful harvest. After share cropping one of the large farms at Lake West for two years, the Government placed the former plantation land up for sale in 1940, and my dad and brothers were some of the first to buy their farms. It seems they chose just the right land, for the creeks that flowed through their farms would feed a lake to water the land with a gravity flow system, which was what was used in Arizona and California. In 1954, they purchased a bulldozer and, with their mule teams and tractors, built a large fourteen-acre lake, making the proper dam and outlets to irrigate about 100 acres of my father’s land. My two older brothers were partners with much more land. Between 1959 and 1960, they began moving dirt in order to make somewhat the same setup just across the road from Dad’s property, and their seventy-acre lake was much larger, with a bigger creek that flowed into it. Because my brothers and I had married and each of us had four children, we often planned outings near and far where we could relax and visit for a day or two. My mother and dad had a large house, and after a good meal we spent many hours sitting, visiting, and playing games at their home. Each of us continued that same pattern once our own children left home and returned for a weekend of laughter and visitation. 177 7978-ch03.pdf 10/6/11 8:16 AM Page 177 In 1961, my brother Julius heard about a farmer near Bonham who had a lake similar to theirs, but he had also stocked his lake with catfish fingerlings and planned to market the fish by letting citizens come to his farm to fish, paying for the fish as they caught them, thus providing the pleasure and amusement of catching the fish and the satisfaction of taking them home for consumption and enjoyment of a great meal. My brothers soon visited the Hodge Fish Farm near Bonham. They telephoned us telling us what fun it was and that they wanted to take us on Saturday morning to visit the fish farm to fish. Julius, being an innovative thinker, and with the desire, was really thinking about stocking a pond with fish and utilizing some of the water from his big lake. All of our family were excited about something we had never done and spent a lot of time preparing to fish as well as making things clean and pretty around our place. Finally, Saturday morning came, and we arose with gusto. Everyone was taking care of their chores and happy we were going to all get to be together. My brothers and their families soon arrived. There was Julius and Eva Mae with two of their four boys, Major and Martha with their two girls and two boys, and William and I had three of our four girls. After a lot of hugging and laughter we each got into our own vehicles and started north. We turned west on the Ravenna road, and it wasn’t too far to the fish farm. We looked around and seemed to be the only ones out to fish. After making arrangements with the owner, out of three lakes we chose the one the farthest to the east. The sign with the rules said, “You Pay For What You Catch. We Will Dress Your Fish If You Choose.” We busied ourselves with rigging our lines and baiting the hooks. Eva Mae had brought her favorite cane pole. Of course, we had to fix them for our children, but weren’t too anxious for them to get started until we saw just what we...