May 28, 2019 - When Daddy moved our family from Center, Texas to the Shelbyville, Texas hill in 1949, we were suddenly in a young boy’s paradise. We were four blocks from School, (with room to play hooky along the way), three blocks from the grocery store and just a short walk from Dr. Jack Windham’s Lake. Since the lake was posted, we’d slip through the woods behind the lake, crawl to the top of the dam “to see if the coast was clear”. And by fishing next to the woods, we could “watch the coast” while we fished.
Early one morning John, Joe and I dug a can of earthworms and headed to Dr. Jack’s. On our way to the lake, we ran into a heavy rain. Since we were already wet we sprinted through the pouring rain to the button willows at the shallow end of the lake. As we waded into the water the rain stopped, the water became smooth as glass, and a soft greenish light settled over the lake. Then…out of nowhere…. scores of chinquapin perch began swarming around our feet… but when we dropped our hooks near them, they wouldn’t bite.
Leaning my pole against a button willow, I slowly reached down into the water and lifted a fat chinquapin up in my hands. “Look!”, I hollered. “I caught him with my bare hands!” Then we started chasing fish like bears chase salmon and within an hour we had caught 22 fish…some by hand and some with hooks. And when the swarms of fish returned to seep water, it was like a planned retreat. They left just as quickly as they had appeared.
When we showed our basket full of fish to Daddy, he barked, “Where did you boys seine those fish?” and I answered, “We didn’t seine them, Daddy”. “We caught with our hands.”
During the year we fished in Dr. Jack’s Lake we caught large numbers of crappie and bream but rarely caught a chinquapin. But that day we didn’t catch a single bream or crappie It was an exclusive chinquapin get-together...
… and one we’ve never forgotten.
That day at Dr. Jack’s Lake was 69 years ago and I haven’t seen it lately. Someone said that a relative of Dr. Jack’s bought the land and built a house near the lake. And I thought…..
… what a priceless idea!
***The redear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus, also known as the shellcracker, Georgia bream, cherry gill, chinquapin, improved bream, rouge ear sunfish and sun perch) is freshwater fish native to the southeastern United States.
