“Around here if you catch anything other than minners or horneyheads you think you’ve got good eating.”
Last night’s video: Watermelon Hill 5.
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Tipper and family,
Please give Miss Cindy a big hug for me and my family. I hope she is able to look through her window and see the bright sun and the green grass.
You and Deer Hunter are strong people from strong folks who also endured premature chronic illnesses of loved ones. Be thank-you had all the good times with her and the wonderful memories. She is still the wonderful woman all of you grew up with and never forget that.
Many Prayers and Much Love,
Kathy Patterson
All of this talk about size made me think of my wife’s granddaddy. When we would fish with him and he caught a small fish and ask him if was going to throw it back in. He would say “you eat butterbeans don’t you? It’s big as a butter bean. I miss this people so bad.
Happy Mother’s Day to you and your mother and your husband’s mother. Prayers for her!
I don’t have a clue what a horneyhead is. I’ll have to do some googlin.
Happy Mother’s Day, Tipper Jane!!
You done good at it.
You done good at it and so did your Mama!
I found out that what I know as a chub is the horneyhead y’all talked about.
🙂
It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a minner, a 5lb bass or a good sized trout…I just about always throw em back. I like to fish for the fun of the catch. Although now that I’m thinkin about it a fish fry sounds pretty good! We used to have fish fry Saturdays at church during the summer when I was growing up…good times
We call them knottyheads! Our creeks had knottyheads, minners and crawly-bottoms. Crawly-bottoms are more commonly known as snail darters (I think). They are strange little fish. They sit on the bottom facing into the current waiting for food to drift by. They don’t swim steadily like most fish, they dart from place to place. Their color often blends in with the creek bottom making them hard to spot but if you happen to get one to bite and pull it out it becomes an alien looking mottled black and gray little thing.
I have been know to eat minners and knottyheads but not whole. We’d always split their bellies , drag a finger through them and then fry them. It’s quite a lot of work for not a lot of meat but it’s something.
PS: We caught them for bait for bigger fish. If the bigger fish didn’t bite we might just eat the bait.
Have a blessed and wonderful Mothers Day Tipper.
When I was a kid I thought I had a large fish when I caught a horny head! The beavers had just about done away with the fast moving streams the horny heads lived in.
Every member of mankind needs a creek/crick nearby. It offers hours of pleasure and adventure. It is rather strange now, but back in the day almost all the wildlife had been killed and eaten, and the creek waters could be a bit questionable for fishing. Not a lot of fishing, but squirrel hunting still remained a pastime for hunters. I suppose we children went by the old saying, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” We played for hours on rocky hillsides and along the creek sides. We caught minnows and fireflies often. I think we may have largely contributed to the abundance of a weed called dandelion, as we also spent hours blowing off the seeds to see how many children we would have. :).
Horneyheads are a delicacy in East TN, as a boy we use to sell them ( it was illegal at that time and may still be, so we secretly sold them to a local restaurant for a nickel a piece, big money in the 60s). The restaurant was next door to the courthouse so most of the customers would have known that. Unfortunately it’s been years since I’ve caught any, we go every spring a couple of trips fishing for them
Us boys used to fish the tiny branches for minnows using a #14 hook I believe it was. We turned them loose but they were fun to catch. Hornyheads can get about the size of small brook trout so I guess they are big enough to eat.
Ron, I have never seen a horneyhead that big. Most of the minnows or horneyheads we caught were no more than a couple of inches long. Shoot, I once caught one about 4-5 inches long and thought about have it mounted-that was a trophy out of that small branch! About the hooks, I have made my hooks out of straight pins or very small safety pins. Today’s kids no longer do things like fishing for these fish.
I don’t know really about the size of brook trout. I kinda guessed at “small”. But I have seen a horny head (had hard ‘bumps’ on its head anyway) about 6-7″ long and at least 3/4″ through the body. This was in clean, clear rocky bottom stream in the Cumberland Plateau country of southeast KY.
Would that be tiny minnows and toads? Doesn’t sound too tasty. Lol. Any “catch ‘em” after that sounds good! Lol I had a friend from McDowell County, WV proclaim “catch ‘em” was for dinner. When I asked what it was he said “ whatever you catch.” He also said he was a “real go getter!” I asked how so and he replied “ I take my wife to work every day and I go get her.” He is a real Cracker Jack! Lol
Sadie, hornyheads are not toads, but in my area small minnow size fish that have “knots or bumps” on their heads. I have never seen any as big as some others have commented about.
Hey, I think that I’ve fished in that crick!
I’ve never fished in a crick but I have had one in my neck!
grand pa Chester caught some pretty big hornyhead, he eat them! God bless y’all God bless Ms Cindy in Jesus name, God bless you ,friends of Appalachia, in case I don’t have the opportunity, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the world! Happy Mother’s Day Tipper, God bless you and your family in Jesus name ✝️❤️
Our friend, the late Francis Partin used to exclaim when confused, “ I don’t know if I am a’warshin’ or a’hangin’ out”
The minnows and horneyheads this refers to might be different from the ones I know about. Fishing for these fish gave me and other country boys many hours of happiness when I was a young boy. My creek also had minnows we called “red horse”, they were red with yellow fins, haven’t seen any of these in years. I have heard my uncles say when they were young back during 1920’s-30’s, they would seine this creek with homemade seines , catch and eat these fish. They fried the entire minnow with butter in a cast iron pan. I never tried this, I couldn’t get by not removing the guts. I have never ate sardines for the same reason.