[RKDinOKC]

My parents and grandparents lived in Pryor OK. The is not far from Grand Lake. My parent used to go fishing on Grand Lake at night. There were huge flotillas of small boats with lanterns. The lanterns attracted the fish.

By the time I came along my Grandad had a boat house on Grand Lake. The boat house was kind of like a 1 room cabin with a garage for the boat. It was a wood structure on barrells. It had a back porch everyone swam off of, and a live well in the middle of the floor in the cabin. It had a big propane tank and a gas stove and gas heaters. It was moored to the bank and had a cat walk to get from the bank to the board house. There was also a big ravine between the driveway and the boathouse that had a skinny catwalk over it. I don't remember where we went to the bathroom.

My Dad and Grandad baited the boathouse by sinking feed sacks of corn under the boathouse. Think it was illegal. Remember going with them to sink a couple of feed sacks and replace the big propane tank in the middle of the night one winter. Remember because it was icy and Dad and Grandad almost ended up in the lake with the big propane tank. They picked the bad weather because they knew no wardens would be around.

We pulled the boat out and fished in the boat well. Don't remember ever gong out in the boat to fish. There were cots in the cabin area if you wanted to sleep but they weren't used very often. Think the only thing the stove was used for was to make coffee.

Because of going with my Dad and Grandad fishing all the time I caught my first fish when I was 3. Had a stick about 3 ft long with 3 ft of line and a hook and sinker on it. By the time I was in kindergartne I could scale and fillet fish by myself.

When I was 7 a weird tornado came thru from the north (the cove the boathouse was in faced north and most all tornados travel east or northeast). It sank all the boathouses in the cove. It would cost more than it was worth to try to raise it.

Before and after the boathouse sank we also went boat fishing with a couple of uncles and friends of my parents. We stopped when stripper fishing got popular and it severely hurt the crappie and bass population.

One uncle we always pulled his boat to Keystone lake near Tulsa. Fishing was okay, but didn't catch as much as other places. My uncle wouldn't move to a different hole if they weren't biting.

Another uncle had a cabin and boat slip on a private lake near Ardmore. Always did well there. In fact, we got a reputation that even if the fish weren't biting they would start when we started fishing and other cabin owners would come out fishing if they saw us. That uncle really like to catch the first fish at a new hole. Dad and I would lower our lines, but only far enough that you couldn't see our bait until my uncle would either catch a fish, or say "Don't wait on me."

Also did well at my parents friends with a cabin on Texoma. It was only a couple of blocks to put the boat in. Did a lot of crappie rigs catching two at a time following the shad running an catching the sand bass chasing them. When the stripper fishing killed the crappie and sand bass fishing he sold his cabin and got a trailer on Ten Killer. After two years they started stocking strippers there so he sold the trailer and gave up fishing.

Spent a night with a travel trailer at a local lake with some neighbors. It was miserable. Didn't catch a thing and it was too hot to sleep in the trailer. We never went fishing with them again.

Last time I went fishing regularly was in college. Took girls to a private (and secluded) pond I knew about. Could have them catch fish with corn or frozen shrimp while I built a fire. They would catch 4 or 5 good size sunfish by the time I got the fire built. Almost as fast as they could rebait their hook and throw the line back in. Then I'd fillet em, fry em, and we had a fresh fish picnic. It was a great lunch date. Most of the girls I took had never been fishing before. Never had one get icked out, probably would have if used worms or minnows. Always had a couple of rods, skillet etc. in the back of my car.

The last time I went fishing my nephew and I took my Dad. We went to a very large pond on my brother's FIL's property that was well stocked with bass. We only had a canoe and we paddled my Dad around the banks and we caught a bunch of nice bass. Then it happened. My dad got a bite, forgot where he was, stood up, and yanked to set the hook. He lost his balance, tipped the canoe, put us all in the water along with all the fish we had caught and worse our gear. Got my Dad to the bank but it was too steep for him to get back into the canoe, he was pretty old. So I crawled in and paddled back to my 4x4 and did some crazy 4 wheeling to get to where he was and back out. We weren't able to recover any of our gear, it was just too deep. So, we just climbed in the truck and went home all wet without any fish or any gear. Glad it was summer and not cold out.

Haven't bothered to replace any of my fishing gear since.