For just a few minutes we were in tall cotton...

[drifter106]

Have fished since I was a youngster and as time passes it seems like the more you do something the better you (should) get at it. Same thing holds true pretty much in life. Thats usually why when an ole farmer talks at the coop everybody usually turns an ear to listen. Anyway, we started ice fishing about 15 years ago and it was exciting to say the least!! Up till then we mostly fished for channels and flatheads and that was about the time we picked up on the crappie thing. By then we pretty much had all our tackle in graphite and really appreciated what it could do for us. It was on one of our ice capades that we decided to venture away from the usually places; Fall River, Melvern, Toronto (all in Kansas) and took our song and dance to a nearby lake that was notorious for their size (not so much for quantity) of crappie. We proceeded to make a few holes by the dam and as all seasoned crappie fisherman do we started working with our depth. WOW!! We realized real quick that when we dropped it to about 20 ft the ole pole would get hammered!! FIRE IN THE HOLE!!! We knew they weren't crappie and figured they must of been wipers. The thing that was frustrating was that they kept taking our light tackle to brush. It took us about 3 jigs apiece and then our lives totally fell apart. We realized that our lines were being sucked in by the intake pipe to the dam!!! Once it hit that "HOT" point you couldn't get it back. We laughed our butts off (till this day) but for just a few minutes we thought we were in TALL COTTON!!!

[cook]

Thanks for taking the time to tell that story.Good job.

Never heard the expression"Tall Cotton"before

[ruvidu]

Great song, Walking In Tall Cotton, by the group Alabama pretty much describes the meaning of this old saying. The main gist of the phrase is that tall cotton is a lot easier on the back to pick that short or stunted cotton. Thus you could pick more faster and make more money at weigh in. I never picked it but all the previous generations sure did.

Great Story By The Way. Being from SC I don't understand ice fishing but the story was hilarious.

[fishpro67]

"High Cotton" is the name of the song.

High cotton

Written by roger murrah and scott anders

We didn’t know that times were lean
Round our house the grass was green
It didn’t seem like things were all that bad
I bet we walked a thousand miles
Chopin’ cotton and pushin’ plows
And learnin’ how to give it all we had.

As life went on and years went by
I saw the light in daddy’s eyes
And felt - the love in mama’s hands
They kept us warm and kept us fed
Taught us how to look ahead
Now lookin’ back, I understand.

Chorus:
We were walkin’ in high cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Those fertile fields are never far away
We were walkin’ in high cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Leavin’ home was the hardest thing we ever faced.

When sunday mornings rolled around
We dressed up in hand-me downs
Just in time, together with the church
Sometimes I think how long it’s been
And how it impressed me then
It was the only day my daddy wouldn’t work.

Chorus x2

We were walkin’ in high cotton.

[SteveJ]

Had the same thing happen to me and a friend one time bassfishing with a jig & pig. Took about 3 times before we figured it out.

[smedley]

When I was a kid my mom used to say that we were "sh#$$in in tall cotton" when things were good. Either that or we were "living high on the hog".

[ruvidu]

Thanks for correction FishPro. At my age it is a wonder I remembered who sung it.

[izzysfishin]

Thanks for correction FishPro. At my age it is a wonder I remembered who sung it.

Can't say who wrote it, but pretty sure Alabama sang it. Think your both right...izzy:D

[Cane Pole]

When I was a kid my mom used to say that we were "sh#$$in in tall cotton" when things were good. Either that or we were "living high on the hog".

Still one of my favorite sayings...Has meaning though...I was raised on a farm in rural west Tn. Cotton grown here. If you were in the field and had the urge, you went to the tall cotton. Also used the tall cotton leaves for wiping. There were no such things as kim wipes, bounty,puffs, etc. Just sears roebuck and montgomery ward. U didn't take catalogs to the field with u.... ha I am sure there are others here that know what I am referring to.

[frank lawhead]

REMEMBER IT ALL VERY WELL---ALSO BEING NORTH OF YOU REMEMBER TRYING TO GET THE SNOW OFF FROM THE TWO HOLER