By Andrew A. Cox:
Do you remember who showed you how to fish? Was it a parent, grandparent, family friend, or sibling? Even though I had been fishing for many years, a work friend dramatically improved my fishing knowledge. Obie Dubose and I worked together at my first job after completing graduate school. With our mutual interest in fishing, we soon began fishing after work on local waters around Columbus, Ga. He expanded my fishing horizons and ability to catch fish. We caught large carp on the Chattahoochee River, crappie and hybrid bass behind the old Eagle and Phenix mill in downtown Columbus, the creeks and coves on the north end of Lake Walter F. George (Eufaula) and the Riverview area north of Lake Harding.
Prior to hooking up with Obie, I was unable to consistently catch crappie other than when they were shallow during the spring months. With his guidance, I devised a slip-cork method that allowed me to fish for crappie at deeper water depths, making it possible to catch these fish year-round. Many times we would fish at night, sleeping in his pickup truck camper shell. During this time period, I caught the largest crappie of my life. Wish I had some pictures.
Obie did not seem to have as great an interest as I did in fishing for various species with a variety of tackle. I enjoyed fishing for largemouths, spotted bass and trout with fly, baitcasting and spinning equipment. I introduced him to fishing for other species, although he never seemed to get into bass fishing. We caught rainbow and brown trout in the area below Lake Lanier’s Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River, usually floating in a johnboat or canoe from the dam to the Georgia Highway 20 bridge between Cumming and Duluth, Ga. We made numerous trips to Econfina River on the Florida Gulf coast, fishing for speckled trout and redfish. Once again, we would camp in our vehicles’ camper shells close to the river and enjoy several days of fishing.
I was a young man in my early 30s then, and Obie was older, in his early 50s. He had been a lifelong outdoorsman, enjoying both fishing and hunting. He was a quiet man. However, during our fishing excursions, he described his early life growing up in the North Highlands section of Columbus, and talked of his father who had moved from south Alabama to find work like so many people in the Chattahoochee Valley. He would also speak of hunting and fishing in Arkansas, where he lived for a period of time. He was a family man with a wife, two sons and a daughter, and he occasionally provided insights gained from a lifetime of work and living.
As my fishing mentor, Obie not only taught me some new fishing skills, but our conversations on life, family and work provided new and reinforced insights on life. Not only did he teach and change my perspectives on fishing, to some degree he changed my perspectives on life, work and family—an older man teaching a younger one the ropes of outdoor activities and life in general.
Obie died in the late 1980s, passing away in his late 50s. Toward the end of his life, he was experiencing physical problems that curtailed his fishing activity and mobility. He is buried at the Fort Mitchell National Cemetery in Alabama. I remember him often and his influence in my life. I wonder what his influence would have been on who I am and my fishing interests if he were still alive and we had more time together.
Dr. Andrew Cox has been fishing the waters of Georgia, Alabama, and north Florida for more than 40 years. Using various fishing techniques, he enjoys fresh and saltwater fishing for bass, bream, crappie, trout, redfish and speckled trout. Dr. Cox financially supports his fishing habits as a professor at Troy University in Phenix City, Alabama. He also serves as associate editor of the Atlanta Flyfishing Club’s newsletter. He may be contacted at andrewtrout@aol.com.