Fishing

When I was a kid we walked to various parts of the river that went through town, to go fishing. We dug worms in the garden, and carried our fishing gear to where we wanted to fish.  One place was part of the river near the mill pond.  I don't know why we didn't fish in the mill pond part.  We always fished in the shallow river part below the water fall that used to turn the wheel of the mill.  We never caught much, but one time I remember coming home with a whole bucket of bullheads.  Bullheads are sort of like mini-catfish.  They have these barbs around their mouths that can sting you.  It was quite a task to get them off the hook without getting stung.  We used to clean our own fish, but when we got home we didn't have the slightest idea how to clean these.  We waited for my dad to come home from work, and this is what I remember about cleaning the bullheads.  Pound a big nail through the bullhead's head into the picnic table.  Cut around the neck with a sharp knife.  Grab the very tough skin with a pliers and pull it off of the fish.  There's more, but that was as far as I got watching my dad clean the first one before I took off for fishless pastures.  I guess my dad finished cleaning them and we ate them, but all I remember is if I ever caught one again it went right back into the river once I got it off my hook.