Well, this post isn’t really about crawdads, but it is about fishing holes, so I thought I would share the video. Until I was an adult the only fishing I knew about was on lakes and streams. I had watched fly fishing and trawling. But in my early 20’s I made friends whose roots were in the southern United States, and I learned about fishing holes. Trout and salmon didn’t frequent these warm water spots, so I also learned to eat a new variety of fish.

Sloughs dot Western Oregon, providing a perfect home for warm water fish. These required learning a new skill, seeking them with a worm, a rod and reel and a bobber. Basically I put a worm on a hook, threw the worm and line into the pond and waited for the bobber to—bob! When it began to go down or up and down it meant a fish was biting and I needed to set the hook and reel it in. One advantage of this kind of fishing appealed to me; a lot of time was just waiting, the perfect opportunity to drink a beer. Apparently beer was an essential element in this style of fishing. Discarded bottles and cans usually adorned the banks of these spots.

I hooked, bonked on the head, cooked and ate blue gill, crappie, sunfish, bass and catfish. I prepared all of these in the southern style of batter dipped, cornmeal coated, and fried. They were tastier than I remembered fish being. Perhaps it was the additional beer with supper.