May: Tallahatchie County Fishermen

Commentary by contributor W.W. May
Every spring, some of the men in Charleston would get the urge to go to White Lake to do a little fishing.
This urge was not so easy to accomplish because getting to White Lake was a real chore, there being no road — just a dim trail through the woods and boats had to be carried along to fish from. It took a wagon borrowed from Woods McLellan’s place to accomplish this, along with mules and a driver named Wiley. The trip was made a couple times each year and the lake nearly always provided plenty of bass, bream and crappie.
The event usually was an overnight event staged from Bear Lake Hunting club, not too far from Tippo, and great eating and good companionship was the “rule of the day,” usually a weekend event.
In the accompanying photo from left is driver Wiley Brown with Ray Prigmore, Elwin Shackford, George Cossar, Bobby Dailey, Tom Harris, Bob Barnes and Hamilton Caldwell, along with four boats.
White Lake is located south of Charleston right between Grenada and Tallahatchie counties, and this photo was made in the early ’60s. It had been lost for years and just lately found by W. W. May Jr.
W. W. May is former Editor-Publisher of The Mississippi Sun and can be reached at wwmay1@comcast.net.