While I Was at Work...

It was a long week. Cathy's dad Bill passed away at his home under hospice care. As with he virus precautions there is no big gather and next week there will be a grave side service. To decompress from all this Cathy and her brother Matt took the boat out Saturday for a little time on the water. What a time it was as they scored a two man limit of catfish.

I had to work. Here is how they looked when I pulled up in the drive way. 

Nice mess of fish. We ate some, Matt took some home and I drove over and donated about 5 pounds to the Joseph House so the residents could have fresh fish. 

I see Lufkin has issued a stay at home order. Hopefully they will let me on the late on my off days next week. 

More March Catfishing Reports...

The catfish were on point yesterday. They started to bite almost from the first cast. Once again Cathy is nosed up into the hole in the bushes we call the horseshoe and I'm not really practicing social distancing but fishing the creek edge out back of the boat. We fished about 3-5 pm. Wind was from the south, the best direction for this spot and that breeze rippled water along with some cloud cover had the cats liking the shallows. 

Last time we fished here was calm and sunny and the bite was slower. No fish were along the creek channel that day but today they were and in fact I had a bite, set the hook, and while at first the fish did not seem big as I leaned into the fight the line parted. The break was above my slip cork stop and I did not see my float surface again. If you recall previous reports I caught a 7 pounder from this spot. 

Final total was 29 cats with maybe a third or less egg bearing females. 

We got home, having spent probably more time trailering, launching, cleaning and cooking that we did catching. For cooking I tried a baked fish rolled in cornmeal That was on the box of Zaterain's fish fry I prefer. Lightly oil fish, roll in meal, spray top of fish with cooking spray and bake 475 till fish flakes. It was great and in fact Cathy says if we switch to this instead of fried we might outlive or retirement savings. 

Lake is down a bit and Hanks Creek boat ramp is open after being closed due to high water last weekend we were off. Corps of Engineers has canceled tournaments on the lake for now because of concerns with large gatherings. Rumor has it that Closure of Forest Service boat ramps are on the table as the Covid 19 picture develops. 

Looks like rain might keep us off the lake today but you know you can stay tuned here for the best lake reports.   

A Hike in the Woods...

I see in the age of Covid 19 with many public areas and activities shut down outdoor fun, playing music and reading books (they should probably add eating greens three times a week to the list because combined with the other three things it makes a recipe for a health body and mind) are encouraged. I guess I was ahead of the curve last week before the world turned crazy when the grand kids were here and we fished Sam Rayburn and hiked the Swamp Trail at Martin Dies, Jr. State Park. 

I was behind the curve though on the toliet paper thing. While I was doing all this outdoor fun store shelves emptied and as the blues man Howlin' Wolf said "I have had my fun if I never get well no more" so I look to be out by Friday of Saturday. 

Even though precautions were not in effect this day here's a good example of the 6'  probably soon to be 10' social distancing rule   

 

Ya'll TOO CLOSE!

This gives me an idea for a novel or maybe a short story since that's the genre I usually work in. Opening line:

"Even though I could not guess the gender specifics of their relationship from the deeply felt and cut initials in the gray tree bark and the gentle closeness of the letters massaged away some of the pain caused by the 6' social distancing rule the fact that love is love could not be denied."

And so it goes. See the Howlin Wolf quote.  

A couple of days after this photo I found that I could not completely look over my left shoulder. For my Physical Therapist friends if you gave me a Berg Balance test I would have lost a point on the turning to look behind over left and right shoulder. My fall risk was increased. See Howlin Wolf quote. 

Of course I made a cast but no bites. 

Self quarantined example. 

Eat your greens, play some blues, get out in the spring time. Have your fun. 

This week's Lake Report...

I did some yard trimming cutting back a bunch of yaupon and throwing in some cedar for good measure and decided rather than burn or dump I would haul it all to the lake and make a fish habitat. 

We picked out a spot, currently with the lake up we found a little edge of a small drop into 37 feet of water and got a good placement by an easy to tie up to stump. On the new fish finder it barely looked like a bump on the bottom but the sensitive electronics picked up the stream of escaping air bubbles. Maybe when the crappie go deeper it will home some fish.   

This was a bit disturbing. It's another pontoon fishing one of our favorite deep water spots. I spotted this guy on the other side of the old boat lane and as we were working on our sinking he headed straight for this spot to fish. I think this was maybe a random choice since in several years of fishing this area, usually August through January has been the best time we have not seen another person nearby. I did not intend on fishing that spot this day as we had been catching cats shallow. 

As a side note by zooming the photo up I see about 5 boats fishing under the long bridge. Might be something going on there.   

Cathy fishes the spot we call the horse shoe. For some reason after a couple of pretty good days in this area things were slow. She put it on me 7 cats to my 1. The creek edge out the back of the boat that produced a 7 pounder for me last trip produced 0. 

After seeing some crows monkeying around the osprey nest they were back and no crows to be seen. 

More Fishing Reports...

With the water temps hovering in the low 60s fish are moving into the shallows. Not racking up big numbers but there are solid fish to be has a evidenced by this 7.5 pound blue cat I caught. The channel cats were solid fish and a few of them had eggs so the spawn is beginning. That blue cat was a male so there are some big mommas around somewhere. 

This little spot is one of my favorites. Cathy calls it the horseshoe because the brush line makes a gentle curve creating a little pocket where the fish seem to gather. That little spot right head of her has given up a 10 pounder. I usually nose the boat up into that spot and behind the boat I mark the creek channel with a couple of floating buoys and I sit back there and cast to that spot while Cathy works the shoe. The big one this trip came from the creek edge.   

Total for the day was 15 fish. The big one is swimming in our bellies. 

Catfish in the Shallows...

Went to the lake today and the action was a bit slow considering I fished from about 10-2pm to put 12 catfish in the boat. Average size was good and some of the females had eggs so I would say they are making a spawning move. Water was 61 degrees and with a slight increase fishing is going to be good. 

I don't know where my friends the ospreys are but this crow was making himself right at home in the nest. I ran him off once but he came right back.  

Caught a few fish around the bushes in our usual places but they really seemed to be hanging on the lip of a little creek edge. All caught 5'-6' deep. 

Turtle soup? Not swimming in my belly. 

As a side note with the recent rain both Hanks Creek boat ramps are closed. I launched at Monterey Park. 

Spring and the Critters are Busy...

It's rainy and stormy this morning but I noticed the past couple of days that every cow I have seen was standing up. That means the fish are biting and as soon as this weather passes I'm out there trying to catch them. Yesterday after work I sat on the back deck and watched how busy my local critters were. 

I guess this generation of squirrels have grown up loud guitars and tubas blaring so not much bothers them. These two were busy cutting and eating little fresh green leaf sprigs on a tree by the deck. I don't know what kind of tree it is, probably could easily be considered an invasive or a trash tree but I guess it is tasty and these squirrels seemed big and fat.  

I was trying but I never could get a photo of the upside down hang eating technique. There was another squirrel out from with some kind of project of his or her own in a cedar tree. 

At the same time three of these guys showed up in my neighbors pasture. They were about 50 yards off the deck and all the squirrel action. Like everyone else in town the one on the right says, "Is that that tuba guy?"