Little Fisherman in the Background

My sister just sent this great photo of my dad and my grandmother (Grammy) from when I was growing up. I like everything about the photo, but one very telling thing I took note of is the little fellow fishing from the shore in the background. That's me, and it's a scene that repeated itself anytime my family went anywhere there was water when I was going up. Family vacation, church picnic, scout camp, friend's house... The event never mattered. If  there was a lake, pond, river, creek or bay of any sort or size where we were going, I lobbied to tote along a rod and reel, and if I got to bring one, I invariably fished as many of the minutes we were there as was allowed.

Although a lot of Florida parks look similar from this perspective, my best guess is that this picture is from Crest Lake Park, which is right in Clearwater. Crest Lake is only a few miles from the house where I grew up, so it was a handy place for family picnics or for short fishing trips. Once I could drive, I often would go there an hour or so just before dark and walk the banks, armed with a single baitcasting outfit and a Bagley Spintail Bang O lure, which I would twitch on the surface to attract vicious strikes.

I'll bet if I were to return to Crest Lake some summer evening, I could use the same simple equipment that I used 30 years ago to draw similarly vicious topwater strikes.