Fishing

When I was leading a church in McClellandtown, Pennsylvania, I discovered that the men of this church loved to fish!  Several of the men would occasionally bring fish to the house after one of their trips.  At that point in time, Debbie didn't even know how to prepare it.  :-)

Once a year, the men would plan a weekend fishing trip.  The one I recall the clearest was when we went to Confluence, Pennsylvania and fished at the outflow of the Youghiogheny Dam.  This is a great place for catching trout.  Some of the guys had campers and others set up tents. 

Travis was about five years old, so he and I joined the men and had a wonderful weekend.  Delbert Bowers took Travis under his wing and taught him to fish.  Another fellow named Wayne Franks had been a cook in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).  He brought a huge griddle and built a fire under it.  He did all the cooking for the weekend and we ate like kings! 

But we didn't eat fish!  Everyone agreed that it happened to be a weekend when the fish just weren't biting!  Sort of sad.  Believe me, if anyone could catch fish - these guys could do it!  But, as it turned out, Travis was the only one to catch a fish!  Ha ha ha ha...

He caught a six-inch trout! 

Later that day, I got an idea.  I took every man's picture holding up Travis' fish!  :-)

The next Sunday when the men all came to church I had the bulletin board filled with their pictures!  Every man who went was pictured - smiling and holding up Travis' trout!