One of my earliest memories of anything to do with fishing was nowhere close to a river, stream, or lake. It was at my paternal grandparent’s home. My grandparents arrived in the USA in the early 1900’s from Poland. Like many immigrants from Poland they made Cleveland their home.
Sinkers made by my grandfather
My grandfather supported a large family with a full-time job. In his spare time he would fish to put extra food on the table. Never having spare money to buy equipment and tackle he improvised by making his own. In one particular visit when I was 5 or 6 there was a horrible smell in the house. I asked my grandmother what that was and she replied “that’s your grandfather.” My father heard that and started to laugh saying “he’s making sinkers in the basement.” He took me downstairs and my grandfather sat at a small machine pouring lead into a mold, making sinkers in the shape of a bowling pin with a hole at the top. He had a small group of friends who would buy the sinkers.
What I remembered the most of that was the smell and the cloud in the basement from melting the lead. Can anyone imagine doing that now? There are so many restrictions on the use of lead for obvious reasons. The late 1950’s was just a different time and many immigrants did whatever it took to survive.
More on grandpa later.
Go out and fool a fish!
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