Fishing with crickets (live ones)!

I have always felt very blessed in that I have grown up with great grandparents on my mom and my dad's side of the family. I have learned different things about life from all my grandparents. My mom's parents are farmers and so I learned a lot about farm life at their house. My dad's parents LOVE to camp, fish, and all other things "outdoors"! I always thought this was really cool growing up because we got to do things at Meemaw and Grandpa's house that we didn't get to do at home. The first time I went camping was at their house in the tree row...it wasn't out in the woods but we got to sleep in a real tent with sleeping bags! Meemaw knows how to cook most anything outdoors, which is pretty cool because I don't have a clue when it comes to that! The past week or so, they have been on a camping adventure going from Kansas to Mississippi. They drive a few hours and then stop at a camping site and spend the night and a couple of days fishing, hiking, bike riding, and are back on the road. This weekend they were in Mississippi and found a lake near Starkville. Yesterday, I went out to the lake with them and spent the day fishing. When I arrived, Meemaw had cooked lunch in the crock pot - we had a full meat and potato meal! After lunch, Meemaw and I went down to the water and fished. We had some worms but the fish didn't seem to pay any attention. There was an experienced fisherman (the nice boat, whole nine yards) nearby that seemed to be catching fish left and right. After awhile we finally hollered out to him and asked what he was using for bait. Apparently southern fish like live crickets, not worms! The nice man came up to us in his boat and gave us some crickets. After that it was game on! We caught several fish. I was pretty excited and wanted to have them for supper but Grandpa said they weren't big enough. Needless to say we didn't have fish for dinner but it was fun catching them!

It was a beautiful afternoon...

Meemaw putting crickets on her hook...

Grandpa fishing and telling stories...

I caught a fish!

Meemaw talking to the "expert fisherman".