HANCOCK CREEK -- Shades of brilliant spring greens were reflected from the still water of Hancock Creek. Just the slightest breeze out of the southwest ruffled the water. High above the water, the graceful and magnificent forms of a pair of osprey circled. It was a great day to be fishing.
Gene Huntsman's fishing rod was already bending beneath the tugging weight of a fish before I was able to make my first tempting offerings to finny dwellers of the Neuse River tributary in Craven County. Pawing through my tackle box is something like finding oneself in a toy store with a hundred choices waiting.
I chose a never-fail bobber, hook and worm.
Each year, some 20 million of us insist fishing is enough fun to justify our investing in a fishing license. Fishing comes in two basic forms, fresh and salt, each with several options. While fly fishing is considered the ultimate form, other equally engaging approaches include bait and bobber, trotlines, spinning and casting, trolling, with all their variations.
Just as some fish are considered too small to bother with, others are just plain too big. The largest of all, sometimes, exceeding 45 feet, weighing several tons, is the whale shark, which despite its size feeds almost exclusively on plankton, tiny plant and animal forms almost too small to be noticed.
Since there are listed more than 25,000 differing species known as Pisces, with more being added each year, fishes swim in lots of waters, each in its place and season. In southeastern United States, freshwater fishing, despite the idyllic calendar illustrations, is at its best as a winter sport, to be engaged in during the months after biting bugs and mosquitoes have been tucked in for the season. On the other hand, saltwater fish, with a few exceptions such as bluefin tuna and speckled trout, seem to be happiest in warmer waters.
Mountain trout and largemouth bass are the most popular of freshwater fish. However, the big-mouth bass is by far the most publicized fish of the Southland, but its cousin, the smallmouth, for its size, is the better fighter. If you are seeking to fill the fry pan, the real gourmet specials are found among members of the sunfish family, including crappie and bluegill and their cousins. Any fish's flavor depends on the water in which it was caught.
My bobber had disappeared, the line was cutting fast as my rod took a steep dive. My heart surged as strong pulsing pressure signaled the creature was heading for deep water. On ultralight gear, I had my hands full. But there will be fish steaks on the grill.
I find it hard to describe a more beautiful freshwater fish than a pumpkinseed in its springtime mating colors, although I'd concede mountain trout might come close.
And I would further suggest early fishermen knew what they were talking about when they spoke of the fish, labeled today as the mahi mahi or dolphinfish, were then known as the "El Dorado," the golden fish.
"A school of Dolphins, tumbling in wild glee,
"Glow'd with such orient tints, they might have been
"The rainbow's offspring, when it met the ocean
"In that resplendent vision I had seen," wrote James Montgomery in "The Pelican Island."
There remains a lot of magnificent fishing waiting for us in our watery world.
