It’s not for every household, but anyone who fishes and wants to get out of the house for the holidays can follow my example. And trust me, Christmas was a blast from the past this year.
By Ray Reilly for Press Pros
When I was a kid I loved reading the outdoor magazines, and begged for subscriptions at Christmas and for my birthday.
Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, and Sports Afield…I knew every departmental editor from my constant reading and re-reading and fantasized about the trips and adventures that those men would write about.
Jack O’Connor wrote about hunting trophy elk out West, and on my 30th birthday a few years ago I checked that fantasy off my bucket list.
The great Ohio-based Erwin Bauer would frequently write about hunting and fishing trips during the holidays, and one of my favorite Bauer stories was one about gifting his family with a fishing trip on Lake Okeechobee one year to see who could catch the biggest largemouth bass…while the rest of the Buckeye State shared socks and underwear.
Erwin Bauer was right. For the fisherman with holiday fever for the outdoors, this beats socks and underwear every time.
And while I’ve fished in Florida for years, I never forgot that story about spending Christmas in the Sunshine State. But this year I made it happen. And what pushed me over the edge was an early package from a family member who had boxed up all my old magazines and presented them to me three days before Christmas. She claimed…she couldn’t wait any longer!
And quite by coincidence, my phone rang the very next day and long-time friend Steve Montgomery was on the other end with Christmas wishes from central Florida, and to further lure me in.
Mentioning the box of old magazines, I asked him how the fish were biting in Okeechobee.
Olde English Outfitters proudly sponsor area sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.
“I don’t know about that,” he answered. “But they’re sure biting good around here, and in the spots around Silver Springs. “Come on down. Let’s see if we can’t hook a big ‘un or two.”
That’s all it took for me to gift myself as I crossed the Ohio River at Gallipolis on Christmas Day and headed south for Steve’s place north of Ocala. Taking my time to enjoy the drive and the company of Willie’s Road House on Sirius XM radio along the way, I arrived the following evening at almost dark.
“Weather’s been great,” said Steve, who’s retired and spends his days now looking for another, new place to fish. “We’ve been catching a bunch of fish in some of the local ponds. Nice bass, and even nicer bream (bluegills). No restaurant in Florida has better fish on the menu than I’ve been eating.”
That’s about all it took as we planned to fish the following day on a friend’s pond north of Ocala. We got the boat in the water by 8 am, and with my second cast of a topwater Rapala, I was hooked up with a fat two-pounder that I eventually had to pull out of the weeds to land.
In the front of the boat Steve was throwing a crank bait in deeper water and he was soon hooked up with what appeared to be a much bigger fish. We’ll never know because as he got it near the boat the fish lunged and broke his line against the propeller of Steve’s small Mercury outboard motor.
“That’s my fault,” he laughed. “I was enjoying it too much. I should have just horsed him out of the water and saved fish, lure, and time. Now I have to re-rig.”
Easy to fix, delicious to eat…no restaurant in Florida served better than the fresh bluegill and sunfish I enjoyed for the holidays.
We fished for the next two hours and never did one of us not have a fish hooked as we worked our way around the banks of the three-acre pond. Average size was a couple of pounds, but Steve assured me…
”If you want to do bigger this water’s about 20 feet deep. They’re down there, but between now and the time they spawn you have to work for them. In the meantime, let’s catch us a mess of eatin’ fish.”
Eatin’ fish to Steve means red-ear sunfish and bluegills, and in a bed of lily pads and grass near the boat dock we were soon up to our eyes in both. And some as big as twelve inches. Within an hour we had strung twenty prime fish of eating size and headed for the ramp to load the boat and move on to another spot for later in the afternoon.
That night, on the night of the 27th, we had the best fish dinner I’ve ever had, along with Steve’s specialty hush puppies, cole slaw, and hand-battered onion rings.
For three days we moved from pond to pond, never more than twenty miles from Steve’s place, and fished one day on the Rodman Reservoir, known as one of the best bets in the state to catch a big, big bass.
It didn’t happen for us, although Steve did land a five-pounder on spinner bait that we admired and let go. The weather had turned and the wind picked up on the final day and when that happened the fish must have gone to the mall, with everyone else.
The point is, the best Christmas experiences of my youth came true this year, just like the covers of those old Outdoor Life magazines once proclaimed.
Like Erwin Bauer wrote, all you have to do was change your habits for the holidays. Get out of the house and go fish while everyone else is sitting around the table or in front of a football game on television. We had north central Florida to ourselves, and we had quite a time.
’Til next time, I’ve enjoyed it.
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