Parker's Fishing Report...

That little girl there, yeah the one with the stinking catfish bait stuck to her hand in the photo had three catfish in the boat before I could get a good cast. That's let down, hooked and with just moderate cues like "REEL, REEL, YOU GOT ONE" all by herself. I mean Cathy does that to me sometimes but she's a grown ass woman baiting her own hook and all that so it's really no surprise but my three year old grand daughter Parker is already demonstrating some serious skills.  

There's another one. Of course fortunately for the catfish a three year old gets tired, gets hungry and attention eventually wanes as other concerns press so there are some cats left if you are thinking about going sometime this weekend.  

The lake was beautiful and pleasant with a slight north wind. It will be cool weather fishing before I am ready. 

Of course Parker's dad did not do too bad fishing himself and we ended up keeping 15 cats and throwing back a bucket full of little fish. As a matter of fact fishing laws changed September 1st on Sam Rayburn Reservoir to no minimum for channel and blue cat and only 5 longer than 30 inches. Daily bag and possession goes to 50 per person. All those little fish caught Monday? They are legal today. 

I always fillet my cats (catfish) so it's nice when they are greater than the old legal length of 12". They make a good fat fillet. I can see myself camped out, barefoot in a ragged pair of blue jeans cut off way too short for a man my age cleaning a few of those 10" blue cats whole to pan frying with the tail still on cooked up all nice, fresh and crisp. 

We left the fish biting. I seem to be keeping less and less fish these days. Just enough for a meal. Morgan took most of them home but I jacked four fillets out of the bag for mine and Cathy's supper. I grilled them along with a few shrimps in butter and Cajun seasoning and it was right tasty.   

My advice to get your kid fishing is don't bother with those colorful toy fishing poles. Get a real one and turn them loose. Fish won't stand a chance.