July 2, 2025
By Earl Nicodemus, POL contributor

We went out to the corncob pile behind the shed and dug worms. Then we all loaded into the car. Our cane fishing poles stuck out the back window as we drove down to Aunt Ted and Uncle Mac’s farm on Coonpath Road, east of Route 158 and just north of Lancaster.

After the usual small talk, we headed back to their pond where the bluegills were waiting. Sometimes we even caught a bass. We made that trip from our farm on Refugee Road many times while I was growing up. The tackle was simple—just a cane (bamboo) pole with seven or eight feet of fishing line ending at a small hook (size 8 or 10). A split-shot sinker and a cork bobber completed the outfit.

In the 1960s, when I was in about the eighth grade, I found a closed-faced spincasting outfit under the Christmas tree. It featured a Johnson Century Model 100A reel—and it still works great to this day.

As a teenager, I often fished in Uncle Fred’s woods with my cousin Donald Turley. Donald used a classic Zebco 33 reel on his closed-face spincasting rod.

Today, Tollgate Middle School stands on what was once Uncle Fred’s farm. Fred’s woods were on the west side of Tollgate Road, beginning near the location of the old, covered bridge. At that time, Sycamore Creek was alive with smallmouth bass, rock bass, and other fish, and we spent many memorable days fishing there.

Every Spring we would visit the small streams that fed into Buckeye Lake to catch the white bass during their spawning migration.