Montana Woods N Water July 2016 Print Edition | Page 6

FISHING

A Cane Pole, A Tiling Spade and A Bobber
By Raf Viniard
As a kid I didn’t have any fancy rod and reel until I was much older...the cane pole was the tool of
the trade for fishing any body of water you could walk or bicycle to.
Cane poles were 8 to 10 feet and were cut from cane thickets along the creeks. The longer the
better for reaching further out into the water from the bank or a boat. Finding a good cane pole
was as much of an art as fishing itself. They were cut green, stripped of their leaves and dried.
After they were dried they were fitted with about 20 feet
of braided cotton line. The first tie was just above the butt
end, right above where you held it. The braided line ran to
the tip where it was wound several times around the tip
and tied off. The extra line wound around the tip was
there in case you had to cut your line, that you still had
some extra line to fish with.
The remaining 6-8 feet of extra line hung from the tip of
the pole. Your sliding bobber, split shot and # 4 gold or brown Aberdeen hook was attached at the
end of the line. To transport your cane pole to your fishing hole you simply wrapped the line
around the length of the pole, sliding the hook in a tiny hole in the end of the handle. You stuffed
some extra weights, hooks, bobber and a stringer in your shirt/pant pockets or in the bait
container. You threw the cane pole over your shoulder and then set out to find some worms to go
into your bait container which ranged from one of Mom’s good Mason or Ball canning jars, to an
old bucket or soup can. As long as it held a little dirt/grass and some worms/grasshoppers it
would work. Even shirt pockets were used if time was of the essence.
Digging for worms was pretty easy on the farm. Any shovel or pitch fork would work. Sometime I
would get lucky and lift up old boards or a piece of tin and find them
just laying there like gold...begging to go fishing. As the summer
wore on, t