THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507070142
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
I took my 7-year-old grandson, Jake, fishing for the first time last weekend and did I ever choose the right place.
Being a bit squeamish about everything to do with angling from threading a worm on a hook to taking a fish off a hook, I wanted to find a way to introduce Jake to the sport but not pass on my prejudices.
The place to go is Pungo Ponds. Pungo Ponds (426-FISH) is an aquaculture venture of Pungo Blueberries Etc. at 3477 Muddy Creek Road. New this year, the catch-your-own catfish operation is the latest addition to Robert and Jaunita Burns' unusual array of alternative crops - from elephant garlic to the blueberries for which the farm is known.
Rod Burns, their son and manager of the ponds, not only has everything from poles to bait on hand, but he is the greatest fishing cheerleader and grandmother helper known to man.
While moms and dads find it kind of relaxing standing around the pond, with a cane pole dangling in the water, little kids get bored waiting for a fish to bite. Not with Rod Burns around.
He goes from family to family making sure things are going well, checking out their bait and the height of their red and white bobbers. Burn's enthusiasm inspires all the fishermen around the pond to join his cheers when a fish is caught. With two well-stocked catfish ponds, there is not much opportunity for boredom anyway. You can be just about sure you will catch something before too long.
Each pond is about 1/3 acre in size and each is stocked with farm-raised, grain-fed channel catfish, now averaging between 1 and 2 pounds. Every two weeks or so, depending on how many fish are caught, the ponds are restocked, so there should always be something there to catch.
The well-fed fish grow fat on two daily feedings of Purina Catfish Chow. Catch and release is not allowed for health reasons, so you'll never catch a fish with a damaged mouth.
You can bring your own fishing equipment or rent cane poles and hooks for $1 a day. A few rods and reels are available for $2 a day. A cup of bait is free. The plump red worms are raised by the Burns on the composted remains from the cleaned fish.
The only fishing fee is the $2.25 per pound you pay for the fish you catch. Cleaning is 50 cents per pound extra. But bring enough money for fish and more. You won't be able to resist the Burns' other enticing products, like elephant garlic, garlic vinegar or sweet 100 cocktail tomatoes. And plan enough time to pick a few blueberries, which should be ripe anytime, or blackberries, which are still coming in.
Though a storm was coming up the afternoon we went and thunder was rolling in the back ground, the few folks around the ponds were still catching catfish. Nearby, Taylor Myers, 4, of Norfolk reeled in a wriggling critter, to the cheers of dad Adam and other folks around the pond.
Unlike me, Taylor's dad is an avid fisherman, yet he also thought Pungo Ponds was the place to bring his son. Myers wanted to make sure that Taylor caught a fish, he said.
``I just want him to come down here and get a feel of fishing,'' Myers said. ``Kids get bored real quick, and I wanted him to have a real good chance to get something and to get something that fought real good.''
Jake caught a catfish, too, and it did fight. With Burns right there, cheering him on, Jake struggled to reel in a fish that was heavy enough to bend the rod so it almost touched the water.
He was thrilled at the big, flopping, bewhiskered catfish that landed at his feet. But then he wanted to take it home - alive. ``Let's keep it in a bucket, Mimi,'' he said.
It was time for the next fishing lesson, so we asked Rod to clean it. I wondered how Jake would react to a beheaded, skinned fish. I needn't have projected my squeamishness on him. After the initial surprise, he was prouder than ever. On the way home in the car, I had to keep reminding him not to take the fish out of its plastic bag to look at it.
That fish was to become a well-traveled filet. It went home and into the refrigerator - not to eat, but to wait for his parents to see. Then, the next day the fish went in a cooler to Nags Head where Jake was going to visit his other grandparents, so they and all his cousins could see it.
In fact, eating the fish was the last thing on Jake's mind.
``I don't like fish,'' he said.
But catching it was another story altogether.
P.S.: FLAX TO LINEN, a continuous hands-on demonstration of linen production from harvesting the plant to spinning and weaving, will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Francis Land House. The family program is free with admission to the house. Call 340-1732.
DRESS IN 18TH CENTURY COSTUME and learn about life in Colonial times and how to demonstrate Colonial crafts by volunteering at historic Lynnhaven house. For more information, contact Shirley Bueche at 456-0351 or 481-2145. MEMO: What good fishing holes for children do you know about and what unusual
nature have you seen this week? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Fishing out of Pungo Ponds, an aquaculture venture of Pungo
Blueberries Etc., Jake Spillman, 7, reels in a flopping, bewhiskered
catfish that landed at his feet.
by CNB