By John Clise
You really can’t have too many lures for fishing.
I may have to buy another tackle box to store my new lures I’ve gotten already this year. I can see my wife’s eyes rolling already at the thought of me “needing” another tackle box.
What I really need is an old Chevy panel wagon that I can rack out with peg boards and just hang all of lures and take them all with me fishing every time I go fishing.
I remember years ago my Great Uncle Carr Sprigg showing me pictures of Muskie he caught in the Holly River before the dam went in that were huge. Uncle Carr passed in 1991. He brought out these pictures of these huge fish he was displaying. Honestly, they were huge, though not as big as his smile in the picture.
Suddenly he was gone to the back of his house, and then he reappeared with these humongous three section silver lures that had to be 10 inches long.
“That’s what I caught them on,” he said. The look of shock and dismay must have been a shock to him. At that point, I wasn’t much of a Muskie fisherman. I was more of a trout and bass guy. Now I just mostly bobber fish for blue gill while Justin does the hard work as a bass catching Jedi Master. We’ll be back on the lakes of rivers of West Virginia this spring slaying them again.
I was flabbergasted a fish would go after what looked to me like a soda pop can with hooks attached.
He assured me that he had, indeed, caught fish many times with those giant silver lures. He also mumbled something quite disparaging about the dam, the government and anyone else involved with the project that took his land and forced him to relocate. He wasn’t alone in the aggravation over having to relocate.
I know many people who were forced to leave that area in Webster County, West Virginia. It’s been something like 60 years and people still talk about home. People don’t forget where they come from.
Getting back to the muskie. I asked Uncle Carr what he did with them. Ate them, apparently. Everyone around his home was eating muskie.
Apparently, the Holly River was full of big fish back then. Muskie, trout, bass… all of them.
That area is now part of Holly River State Park. Check it out if you’re ever in the area. It is breathtaking. I can see why people didn’t want to leave.
Clise's Cornucopia 