I grew up on a freshwater lake up in the Northeast.
I got my fishing and boating license when I was nine and I was off to the races after that to fish like my grandfather taught me.
We went out one time with my brother and ran into a strawberry bass hole and pulled up 72 fish within an hour or two. It took quite a while to filet all the fish but when we finished we had one of the best fish dinners I’ve ever had. Stanley was a master at frying fish so they were crispy and juicy. I remember him heating up the oil while cooling off with a nice cold beer. I would sit in front of the dinner table waiting for the first filet to come out of the oil so I could enjoy the fruits of our labor. We had a wood burning furnace in the living room that would heat up the house to a cozy temperature while we feasted on the soft white meat. We never ran out of fish in that house as we had a backup fridge just for storing the fish we caught, usually it was totally filled with fish year round. I can still smell the musty air in the cold basement that had no heating or air conditioning, it was just an old basement with its primitive beauty. Some of my greatest memories in life came from those days I spent at my grandparents house. I’ll never forget them and I’ll always think dearly of those souls from my past.