Bass Fishin with Grandad

Family heritage is something to be proud of and keep alive. My grandfather, Ed Cannan Sr., just turned 80 last month and has lived a healthy lifestyle of fishing, hunting, and an appreciation of the outdoors. Of course these passions were taught to my dad and on down to me and everyone else in the family who took interest. Sitting around and visiting with my grandparents I hear countless stories and there is usually enhancing black and white photos to bring the stories to life. One of my favorites that my grandfather tell is of a trip he and my grandmother took to Liberty, Texas to visit my great grandmother. While my grandmother was visiting her mother my grandfather slipped off with Oscar Huggins to go fish some stock tanks a few miles out of Liberty. Oscar was the Ag teacher at the high school there and he and my grandfather teamed up for hinting and fishing endeavors whenever my grandfather was in town. They went to the stock tanks but after a couple of hours were not having much luck so they decided to head back to town. On the way back my grandfather suggested stopping off at a creek that was backed up due to the Trinity River flooding. My grandfather said that he had fished the creek before at normal pool and had caught a few bass. Using a fly rod with a home tied “dry fly” my grandfather made a few cast and immediately started catching bass. Oscar did not wet a hook and was rushing my grandfather because he had to get back to Liberty to attend a cattle auction. My grandfather reluctantly left biting fish and headed back to town with Oscar. Oscar went on about his business and my grandfather drove back out to the creek which was just outside of town on Wallisville road. As soon as my grandfather returned he started catching bass again. Wallisville road was actually a pretty busy county road and my grandfather was attracting onlookers and had cars stopping on the side of the road, “Several of the people said that they had never seen anyone use a fly rod or catch fish on one,” said my grandfather. “One lady that had stopped had a casting rod with her and began casting into a large bush where most of my fish were schooled. She immediately hung the lure in the bush and practically shook all the limbs off of it before the lure was free.” He went on saying, “I was sure that the fishing was over after this but on my next cast with the dry fly I caught another bass. I ended up with twenty-two bass weighing from one to three and a half pounds each.” He went back the next day to fish again but word had gotten out. My grandfather said every fly fisherman from Liberty County must have been there and that he could not even get close to the bush where he had been so successful the day before. As he watched the mob pounding his fishing hole no one was catching anything at all. “I was at the right place at the right time,” my grandfather said. Bass fishing has changed dramatically since those days but the thrill that comes from fishing has endured time and all the new technology.