My great grandad was a great man for oral history. He was born in 1915 and lived in Moydow, Co longford, so his story telling ability spanned for over a century, for he lived until he reached the age of 101 and died in 2016.
His ability to tell a yarn was very unique and I loved to hear his stories that he had told his gran daughter(my mother). I especially liked to hear about fishing in the old days and how did they do it. This is the story of my Grandad and the long wait on the river bank to catch a trout in the fields of Moydow.
My grandad was shown how to fish by his Grandfather with only two blades of grass and a lot of patience in a little river. When my grandad was about 8yrs only, he had took off to the river bank to see if any trout had come up the little river that was only about 3 foot deep and wide. There to his absolute amazement he spotted a healthy trout and so the long week began.
My grandad began to go to the river every day after school, with nothing as fishing rods were a luxury in the early 1950s.My Grandad put stones at one end of the river and at the other to stop the trout swimming down to the big river. All he did was stand in the river with grass in his hand in the water and wait for the trout to come to the grass and then as quick as the rocky mountain bears, lift the fish as quick as a flash onto the riverbank. That was supposed to be the way it was supposed to happen but no no it wasn’t like that.
For five days my young grandad went to the river to get that trout, with nothing only patience to get him in the end. On the fifth my Great grandad went to see how it all was going on the river bank and just as he was there my grandad had caught the trout with his blades of grass, what a site to see, a little boy weary, tired and hungry but overjoyed to get his great prize (around a 31b trout).
They went the short distance home, to put on the pan and have their supper and how they enjoyed it, we never know but I think it must have been delicious.
Today my grandad is still a great fisherman, with lots of patience, spending hours fishing on a lake or a river, still hungry to get a fish for supper. To this day I can only imagine what it must have been like as I don’t think I could spend hours standing in a river.