OPENING DAY: For local trout fishing aficionados, today is a holiday.
A number of readers responded to our call for fishing stories to commemorate the local opener of trout season, and Frances Wolfe Haight of Kane gave us a call to share some of her fishing memories.
Most of hers have to do with growing up in Mount Jewett in the 1940s with her grandfather, Wilmer Wilson Wolfe, who was an avid fisherman and hunter.
“He was always fishing,” Frances said, and he’d occasionally take her along on outings to small ponds in the area, where they would catch bullhead catfish.
Her grandfather, she said, was part Seneca, and he would pack up his gear and go away for a week-long trip once a year to fish with the chief and other members of the tribe.
When he came home empty-handed — as he always did from the Salamanca trip — Frances’ grandmother would ask, “Where are the fish?”
Her grandfather would reply with a nonsensical story about all the water splashing out of the lake and the fish being ruined, Frances said.
But he didn’t come home empty-handed often, and Frances remembers fish and game being a big part of their diet back then.
She liked fishing when she was a child, Frances said, but mostly she enjoyed being with her grandpa.
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AT THE MASTERS: For those who missed an earlier item in our Sports section about a former Bradford resident officiating at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga., we have a bit more information.
George J. Still Jr., who grew up in Bradford, is one of the officials at the famous tournament and he be working the 13th hole on Saturday and the sixth hole on Sunday, according to his sister, Katherine Still.
George is the son of Zenaide Still and the late Dr. George Still Sr., who practiced medicine in Bradford for nearly 40 years before retiring in 1988.
Zenaide and Katherine still live in Bradford.
George Jr. graduated from Bradford Central Christian in 1976, went on to college at Penn State and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and is now a semi-retired venture capitalist in Atherton, Calif.
He played his early golf at the Pennhills Club. Zenaide, who is 87, still plays there, Katherine said, and shoots in the 50s for nine holes.
