Quite Canoe Trip...

I thought for a moment that I was going to paddle in the Neches River Rendezvous this year. It's a group canoe paddle to draw attention to the preservation of the wild stretch of the river and I have been working every weekend it occurred since it's inception. It's canceled this year due to Covid 19 precautions. Maybe I'll use this as an incentive to keep in shape in my retirement so I'll be able to tolerate a 10 mile paddle next time they hold it. 

In the meantime I have Sam Rayburn Lake. I took a paddle yesterday morning and caught 2 bass and three bream. I did not write a report about last week's canoe because I caught no fish. I think that was the first time I have gone and not caught a fish on a canoe trip. I was fishing a big bunch of lily pads with one of those plastic frog baits but I did not hook any. Someone told me to properly fish a frog you need to not look at the frog when retrieving or smoke marijuana to slow down reaction time setting the hook. Either one of gives the fish time to crush down on the bait and for the weedless hook to take hold. Since I missed about six big blow ups it was pretty obvious I was using neither of these techniques.

All fish today caught on my old stand by the beetle spin. That's a Kentucky Spotted bass, 12 inches long and a legal fish since there is no size limit on them. They don't get a whole lot bigger. I though for a minute about how he would be blackened in the pan but I turned him back.     

Red eared sun perch. They other two bream I caught were bigger but I made his photo. I expected more of these but they seemed scattered with lots of short bites nipping the plastic tail. See hook reaction technique written about above. 

After fishing the pads last week with hydrilla patches in the open water where it was impossible to use anything but some sort of weedless bait this little creek was amazingly clear of weed growth and I saw only a bit of the giant salvina washed way back up in flooded timber. I am really surprised I have seen no alligators while on these quite paddles since it's fairly common to see them when running an outboard. 

I still have the canoe loaded in the back of the truck but the rain forecast for the next few days means fishing might be touch and go. I still have the canoe in the truck. One place I'll try soon is the Ellen Trout Lake at the Lufkin Zoo.