'The First Creek I Ever Fished In was the Tallapoosa'

"We moved back to Haralson County in 1931.
"We’d play mostly at the river. That was our playground. Oh, Good Lord! We fished. We played in the water. We had an old boat, any old boat we could find. Anything we could find to get in the water with, that's what we done.
"One day out there we was under the bridge, about four or five of us on an old boat, standing up, holding onto the bridge. It was in March. And Ralston Wheeler, one of the boys, he went and messed around and fell off into the water. All you could see was his hat, lying there on top of the water! He climbed up, and we had to build a fire to get him warm. We done that a lot of times, built a fire to get warm with, when we went in the creek or something or other where we'd have to get some heat.
"We used canes to fish. We’d cut ‘em off the bank of the creek. We used a line, some kind of a line. We dug our worms. Earth worms, mostly. There were no red wigglers at that time. We’d fish for mud cats or whatever kind was in the river. The first creek I ever fished in was the Tallapoosa.
"And, oh yeah, we swam in that creek. We frog gigged and we’d turtle hunt. We’d make a three-pronged frog gig and we’d go along the bank and see their eyes and take that frog gig and gig it. We’d eat the frog legs. We’d cut ‘em off the frog, get the skin off of them and wash them real good. Mother would wash them real good, skin ‘em, then batter them in flour and drop them in hot grease." -- Carl Bishop
Go frog and turtle gigging with Carl Bishop in W. Jeff Bishop's A Cold Coming -- February, 2013!