![]() I am the only one out here fishing today.” “There were so many cars here back then that it looked someone was having a funeral,” he said. Atkinson remembers from his youth that parked vehicles on the side of the road for miles. “Pikin’” is a term most anglers under the age of 40, or any hailing from outside the coastal plain’s deepest, darkest swamps, will not recognize. “I sure don’t like catching them when I’m pikin’.” “A bowfin bit a hole in my landing net and swam right through it,” said Atkinson, who is retired. ![]() However, it was not a fish Atkinson wanted to catch. ![]() The bowfin, aka blackfish, is an ancient fish with independently directed tubular nostrils and razor-sharp teeth, adaptations that help them survive when oxygen levels are low. He responded by jerking back and hauling a bowfin from the water. He was standing beside a canal on Fair Bluff Road that is part-and-parcel to the river’s swamp ecosystem when he felt a nibble. Ray Atkinson, 75, from Fairmont, fishes for redfin pickerel with as much passion as any mountain angler targets trout. Unlike mountain trout, however, there is no size or creel limit on the redfin pickerel. However, one of its native fish is as beautiful as any rainbow trout. Stained black as burnt coffee with tannin from the soil and decaying vegetation, the water is nothing like the crystal-clear waters of a trout stream. Many unusual fish inhabit the river’s backwater creeks.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |