Over 40 Years In The Making

Last week four Sharon High School huntin' & fishin' buddies got together for an Outdoor Reunion.  Gary Paddock, Terry DeMaria, Bob Davis and yours truly had not been in one place at the same time since graduation day in June of 1968. 

Back in the day, we roamed the open lands and waterways of Mercer County on various hunting, fishing and camping adventures.  Our resulting escapades were the foundations for many of my early writings in regional outdoor magazines.  From close calls with firearms to encounters with possible ghostly spirits at Big Bend, if someone would suggest my stories could not possibly be true, I simply told them "I lived it." 

But for our 2010 reunion, we decided to leave the guns and poltergeists at home, and stick solely with fishing. Concluding that arthritic joints and other aliments among some of us might hamper a kayak float on the Shenango River, Terry suggested we go trout fishing on Neshannock Creek.  Terry guaranteed us there were plenty of left-over stocked trout in the stream as the result of relatively light fishing pressure due to poor weekend weather since opening day.  He was proved correct, as everyone caught rainbows and browns on fathead minnows and red worms - no fancy flies and spinners for us. 

I would like to claim my 15-inch brown was the largest trout of the day, but no one took a picture of it!  Without photographic evidence for all to see, there would likely be challenges from this "where's the proof" group!