His name was Abby (Abner) Shaw, the local legend fisherman. When I met him in my early teens, he was a very old man who loved to tell stories and go fishing.
The body of water was Buffalo Creek, Union County. There's a covered bridge (The Hassenplug Bridge) on 4th St. that kids would fish near or under. It was an easy walk of about half a mile from Walnut Street. The state stocked it with trout from Bellefonte but it held natural populations of rock bass, white american suckers, bluegills, and maybe a carp or two.
Growing up, unlike his dad and brothers, dad didnt fish. He hated fish. We didnt even have fish sticks in the freezer.
Dad knew Mr. Shaw from his own childhood. Like many his age, Abby had been a farmer, jack of all trades and a businessman. Apparently he'd owned a malt shop when dad was young and the house special was a local legend talked about for decades after the shop closed.
I was about 11 when Abby showed up after dinner one night with a cardboard box and a long canvas bag rolled onto itself and tied with a bit of string. Earlier in the week we'd talked to him as he was getting home from a day of gathering bait. In his bucket were two compartments , one filled with local creek chubs and minnows, the other held insect larvae such as stone caddis. I think I'd made the remark that I'd like to go fishing some day, but dad kind of put that on hold.
That gift got me in trouble with my parents. While I was allowed to keep it, it had to be kept in the garage, not in the house. Mom didn't want fish hooks all over the floor.
What Abby had given me, didn't have a single hook. Inside the box, was an early Browning spinning reel, loaded with 1960's mono, a cheap fly reel loaded with old fly line and backing , a small stone handled knife, manuals for both reels, and á few odds and ends.
Inside the canvas bag, a 3 pc 9 1/2 foot bamboo fly rod with metal ferrules, and a cork and metal reel seat, as well as an aluminum tube with 2 more tip sections. It needed to be cleaned, rewrapped, and revarnished, but it might as well have been brand spanking new.
That ignited the "want to" in me and I did every odd job and chore I could to make money to buy new line for both reels. Mr. Shaw taught me how to cast a fly line, what knots,to tie, how to make a knotted, step down leader, etc. and I learned a secret.... fly rods can also be used with a spinning reel to cast live bait into places that regular gear cant reach.
I've been fishing ever since.
. Fishing ponds for blue gill and perch. The Farmington River and every little creek around for Brook Trout back east. Rock bass, smallmouth bass, suckers, carp…whatever was willing to eat a drowned night crawler or rooster tail, I would try and catch as a kid.
