This was my grandpa’s - I have looked at this mount for many years before I started fishing saltwater, and only came to the realization that it was a speck a couple of years ago. I think part of the reason I never realized is also because of the size! I have never caught a trout anywhere near that size…
My grandad was born in 1914 and was a mechanically minded man and a tractor and airplane enthusiast - he owned a “part” of a plane and got to use it regularly back when it was less regulated. He and his buddies would fly down to the gulf and land on the beach to fish.
We never did any saltwater fishing in MS as we were a good way from the coast, but he did teach me to catch bream and bass on a cane pole, at the pond next to the house he grew up in. Some of our favorite memories as a family are fishing that pond.
Grandad died in a plane crash in 2006, the day after his birthday, in fair health. A friend of his neighbor who was an amateur pilot had heard of grandad’s flight history, and offered to take him up for a ride. At the time it seemed to be an awfully abrupt end, but in the grand scheme of things, he did exactly what he wanted to do up until the end. I have no doubt that he would have turned 100 this year doing the same.
Cool Matt. Somewhere around here I have a picture of my Grandmother with a largemouth bass she caught back in the late 1950’s. She figured it was about 12-15 pounds. Of course it was eaten, never mounted. That’s just the way she was. Have fun tomorrow.
My grandmother turned 101 last year and still lives at home. One of my favorite stories that she tells is about the day an airplane flew over the one room school house that she attended. The teacher let everyone out to see the “first airplane” ever to fly over. Then she let them leave early to go home and tell their families about it. We are trying to record all of the family history and stories.
Another great one is about the day she gigged a fish (carp) with two heads. She called grandpa for help after she gigged it and when he followed the pitchfork down to the bottom he said " This fish has two heads!". She had accidently gigged two at the same time. Whenever grandpa would correct someone’s misassumption about anything she would remind him about the fish with “two” heads.
