Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
To see an enlarged version visit this page and click on photo.
This undated image showing a child sitting next to a fish pond is part of the Sherrill Studio Collection. George Dexter Sherrill (1879–1931) opened the first photography studio in Haywood County on Depot Street in downtown Waynesville in 1902. In 1906 his studio became the first Eastman Kodak franchise west of Asheville and the third in North Carolina. Sherrill’s photography roots began in Jackson County where he learned the art from his brother-in-law, A. L. Ensley. Beulah Eloise Ashe Ensley (1899-1991) apprenticed with Sherrill in 1917 and worked in the studio with her husband, Sherrill’s nephew, Ralph Ensley (1894-1975) until Ralph’s death. The Ensley’s demolished the original studio in 1943, dug the site to street level, and built an International style building.
— Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
I was an adult before I heard about folks catching fish and keeping them alive in small ponds or barrels until they were needed for food. From the first time I heard about the method of keeping fish on the hoof so to speak I was mesmerized by it.
Part of my fascination likely comes from the love I had for playing in water when I was a child.
Granny Gazzie had an old washing machine behind her house when I was young. It was no longer in use but stayed full of water from rain. I loved to play in that water every time I could slip away from Granny.
Another memory I have is of Pap taking Steve and me to a fishing hatchery. Well I guess that’s what you’d call it.
There was little concrete ponds with fish in them. The trip was actually for Steve and I remember him catching a lot of fish. I also remember my amazement over all those little ponds of water and how I wished I could get in them 🙂
I’m guessing the small pond the girl is sitting by in the photo was made for holding fish until needed, but it might have been ornamental in nature.
We did have a pond of fish nearby when I was growing up, but it wasn’t for holding them to eat.
Oh the excitement of seeing my Uncle Ray on a yellow bulldozer grading out for the pond.
It was fed from the creek and although much larger than the pond in the photo still fairly small. It was large enough for fish to live and reproduce and it was plenty big enough for a wild gang of kids to play in every summer. It’s where Pap taught me to swim.
The pond has been gone for many years now in the name of progress, but my memories of it are always awakened on hot summer days when the jar flies are calling through Wilson holler.
Last night’s video: Appalachian Fish Fry.
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We have done that. Catch fish and put it our pond. we don’t use the pond now , it’s no good. you can’t eat the fish out of it now.
My mom had a little pond across from the rock house in Andrews where she grew up. It’s where she learned to swim (although she never put her face in the water) and where my grandmother fished and my daddy taught me to fish. The house belongs to someone else now, but the pond is still there. What I wouldn’t give to have one of those days again.
God bless my friend Tipper and her family
Tipper, you are a good fisherman’s friend when it comes to cleaning all those fish. My family has been known to be fishermen for generations, fish has always been a part of our summer diets, but also enjoy them in the winter after freezing the excess of summer catches. But for us it’s the men who do the cleaning and flaying and generally the cooking also. I found it interesting that you left the skin on the trout. Native fish here are catfish, largemouth bass, crappie and a few others.
On our way to Florida for vacation a few weeks ago we stopped in Alabama to get me a souvenir… At a grocery store. White Lily flour and cornbread mix! I was tickled to get it since we don’t have it in stores here at home.
Thanks for sharing this post Miss Tipper, brought back a lot of memories. I grew up around fish ponds from a young boy right on to adulthood living and being raised in the country and very small town. We were either fishing in those fish ponds, swimming in them during those hot and humid dog days of summer here in South Carolina or attending a baptism, which was much more common when I grew up back to the 70’s & 80’s.
Nothing is much more soothing than the gentle sound of moving water. I was a town girl so we put in a koi pond. I enjoyed sitting by it and listening. Mr. Bull Frog even moved into the bank. I had the koi trained to come up for food by calling them and tapping on one of the rocks around the little pond. I had it partially shaded by my favorite pecan tree which was at least 75 years old. Quite a little haven for this town girl. I live in Eastern NC about 70 miles as the crow flies from our coast. We do get swiped by hurricanes and Hurricane Fran hit us pretty hard. We were without power for about 5 days but worst of all, it took down my favorite pecan tree so no more shade for my koi pond. A few days after, I looked out my window and a huge blue heron was standing in my pond having a gourmet meal of my koi. We chased him away from his new fishing spot and covered the pond with 4×8 pieces of lattice. Mr. Heron continued to attempt an attack while we continued to chase him away. Ultimately, when we found time to count our fish, we found the heron had wiped out all my koi but one and a few goldfish. I have moved on but sure miss my fish and pond. Now you know my town girl fish story.
Don Casada might know about this. The Fryemont Inn used to have a small goldfish pond out back. It would freeze over in Winter but the fish survived. George Brown, the innkeeper at the time, said that they had never put goldfish in the pond; but there they were. That was more than 30 years ago.
As a boy I used to fish with my Pa and others but mostly my oldest sister’s husband. We fished with cane poles, mostly for bass in lakes around Raleigh. There was a fellow a few blocks from our house that had built a series of about a dozen concrete tanks about 3-4′ deep that he kept different kinds and sizes of minnows in. That’s where we bought our live bait. Pa would always buy a half dozen shad roaches about as long as his hand. That’s what he used for bass bait with a large cork and heavy line. I remember several bass over 10 lbs that he caught and one that weighed and ounce or 2 over 13 lbs. Largest I ever caught was about 5 lbs with a smaller shad roach.
I grew up playing in a creek. I knew about every inch of that creek for about a mile and a half until it joined another before flowing into Crabtree Creek and then the Neuse River. Spent some time on the Crabtree and Neuse and their banks too.
Looked like a great fish dinner y’all had. But, I’d have to have cooked some grits to go with them. :>
Blessings to all . . .
I remember living with my aunt and she made a goldfish pond in the back yard. My kitten at the time loved to gaze in there. But the frogs took over and my husband had to go out and net them out of there. Also my great uncle on the Big Island kept koi in big barrels, I recall seeing them. And of course, we kept two goldfish in a small tank and it was very calming watching them swim about. Thanks for sharing your memories.
As a retired early childhood teacher, it’s well established that water play has a calming effect on children, unless they’ve been taught to fear it or went through a traumatizing experience.
Water is a gift and necessary to a good quality of life…but for some, it’s dreaded when not in contained properly.
I have been interested in aquaculture for years.
We used bring catfish home from the river and put them in a pond we built in the creek. They tasted better if they were kept in clean cold water for a few days. The problem with that was inevitably it would come up a big thunderstorm, wash out the dam and wash the fish down the creek. Sometimes we could walk down the creek and find a few of them but not often. Bluecats and channelcats were better if kept in the creek but could be eaten right out of the river but mudcats needed that time to clean out. Bluecats and channelcats were hard to come by but mudcats were much more common. That’s probably because people who caught them threw them back.
Catfish are resilient creatures! We used to keep them on a stringer all day then carry (drag mostly) them up the dirt road to our house. We would stop and show them off all along the way. Sometimes they would be out of the water for an hour or two before we got them in the pond. They would be fine! They grunted a little bit but other than that they handed it well.
You didn’t mentioned this but how many times did you get “fin” when taking the catfish off of the hook. Seems to me the smaller ones were worse than the bigger ones. It would put tears in your eyes and ugly words in your mouth if one got you good.
I was wondering what a jar fly was when you mentioned them. I had never heard that used for cicadas. We don’t have a lot of them here in Colorado, but I enjoy the sound when we do . We were recently in Iowa and enjoyed watching the fire flies, which are also very rare here, but with all the moisture we’ve had maybe we will see more of them. I never thought about a pond built on someones property for fresh fish to eat.
Great memories Tipper! Thank you for sharing them with us.
Hey Tipper – reading your blog today about fish ponds and how some folks would keep fish for later eating – reminds me of something I read years ago. In France and other European countries, as far back as the 1600s, monasteries would always have rock-hewn ponds filled with carp. Most ponds were fed from a nearby spring to keep the water fresh and keep it from freezing over during the cold months. The fish provided the monks with an important food source during the lean months of winter.
I’m guessing our ancestors, who travelled over the ocean to settle in the wilds of the southeastern mountains, brought some of that knowledge with them. I’m betting those fish kept many a mountain family in much-needed meat during the cold winter months! thanks for all you do…sure do enjoy you.
One of my aunts spoke of having an area dammed up to hold fish till needed. She’s the only one I have ever heard of but it’s a really good idea especially when there was no electricity to hold fish cold for a day or two. We always eat fresh fish within two days or at the most three.
I remember that our neighbor Miz Cobb had a little fishpond with gold fish.
Pap was a good daddy that took his little boy fishing and taught his little girl to swim. Daddy was always scared of water and instilled that fear in his children. We didn’t have ponds or lakes when I grew up, just creeks to fish in. I used to sit on my aunt’s foot bridge with my homemade fishing pole and watch the fast moving creek water below me and pretend I was fishing from a boat.
Being around water is so calming. Even if you just put your feet in a creek, pond or swimming pool, your whole body seems to relax. Your supper last night looked delicious. Matt knows how to cook that fish!!! Take care and God bless ❤️
I never knew of anyone having fish ponds like you are writing about. Now a few of the newcomers to my area have tried to put in some of what I call “goldfish” ponds in their yards. They soon find out they don’t work around here, too many cats, coons and other critters. A creek on my property was my fishing hole and swimming pool when I was growing up. The fish were finger size minnows called horny heads and a deep hole in the creek was no more than 2 foot deep, but it provided many hours or days of joy to me and the other neighborhood kids. Larger ponds or lakes (1-2 acres) were once pretty common in my area, they would be stocked with eating size catfish, and would charge a dollar a day to fish, most of them had no limits on the number of fish you could catch. Now these type ponds are few and far between. I would work and save to get a dollar in order to go and fish in one these nearby pay lakes. Most area kids of my generation did not get an allowance for doing chores it was just expected of every family member to work and pull together to be able to have the necessities needed to live. These fish caught provided a special meal for your family.
Last night I talked with my friend that caught the bull mentioned in my yesterday’s comment. It was the bull’s ear and not his nose that he hooked. Talking to him about the happy times spent together is now one of the joys of my life.
Your mention of jar flies reminded me of something you’d said earlier this month about Dog Days already having started. In my world view, Dog Days have arrived he first time I hear a jar fly buzzing, and here in Bryson City, that was this past Monday.
Mr. and Mrs. Black had a goldfish pond next door when I was a sprout. I often tried catching them with my hands. I never caught any of them, but I ended in there amongst them on several occasions 🙂
The Ponds in the yard of Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia are stock ponds for fish . Always a easy supply of fish for his table. Wonderful place to visit. The gardens are huge there!
I’ll never forget seeing the ocean for the first time when I was 12. I freak out to this day every time I have to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel cause it’s 13 ( maybe wrong there) miles across that sucker! It’s utterly terrifying in my opinion! Tipper, the idea of having fish “on the hoof” is quite a dandy! You’d not have to worry about going hungry for certain! I knew a guy who kept koy fish in a barrel year round. In the winter, they looked frozen over. Since my granny had her oldest son drown in New River in a sink hole at age 12, she was always scared to death of us kids getting in wild water. Pools and life guards were ok, though. Once, at about 14, a gal shoved me off a rock into a deep gorge and I almost drowned that day from the cold and fright. I ain’t a kidding on that. After my friends got copper head bit coming out of Bluestone River during a rain storm and lay there all night with no first aid til after daybreak, only cold water from the River to soothe them, I’m trying to cut down on wild water. It took Rangers and about 12 people to haul them out of there and had they not been but in the lower leg, they would’ve died right there the doctors said.I have a literal plastic toddler pool ( pink cause there’s no purple) and that’s all the water I need y’all!
There was a man named Sachs who had built a large vat from rock and mortar. He owned a rare flat piece of bottom land on the Sipsey River and he built his house, barn, and out buildings near the river. He also built a small reservoir of rock and mortar. He had several rock fish traps and would keep nice fish he had caught in them and fishing in his spring fed “fish vat” until he needed a meal. I really would not consider his fish storage a pond as it was built above the ground, but he concept is the same. Mr. Sachs also had an aqueduct built from split logs and elevated above the ground that carried spring water from a bluff higher in elevation to this vat. This furnished his drinking water too.
When you said Wilson holler at the end it made me think how nice it must be to be able to walk down the hill and see your mama and brothers everyday of the world if you want. I think I would love that.❤️
Gosh, dinner looked good. I also love fish, fried, grilled, baked and if possible, sushi of raw tune and/or salmon. Of course I wouldn’t eat tuna nor salmon from a supermarket unless it was sushi grade. As far as your veggies, wow oh wow. My tomatoes are already on the downgrade. The season for me is close to being over until I replant. Gonna try those cherokee purple next. One day I hope to have a lush garden s you guys do. Give Granny my best and God Bless you all.
I was a water baby too! Although it was a pool in the suburbs! My memories are a little different. It was a simple pool. Not the giant water park everyone feels they need today. A summer pass was cheap and we went everyday. Sometimes twice. My Dad would come home on the train , we would pack dinner and pick him up and go back. This was a lovely post. Got me remembering some great times!
I remember my great aunt had a fish pond in her front yard. It fascinated me. I must have about 5 years old and would sit there and watch the fish the entire time while my parents visited on the porch. I think hers was for goldfish though not food stoeage.
What wonderful memories you share! As a girl growing up we had an open ditch that held water and some small fish. my twin sister Ruby and I spent hours at the ditch , all year long! Thank you. God bless you and yours❤❤
I really enjoyed the fish fry video yesterday. It looked delicious! Can’t wait to try the hush puppy cornbread!