She's Back on the Lake With a New Hip Joint...

After a hip replacement on Sept 21st Cathy clambers up the ladder yesterday attached to the front of the boat trailer and lifts her skinny fist like antenna to heaven in thanks as I back the trailer down and she powers off for our first fishing trip since her surgery.  

We spotted this dead catfish floating in the lake. It confirmed our theories that in her absence catfish were dying of old age. That's what happens if you are not there to get them out of the water.  

I might not have caught the most but I did catch the biggest. 

Cathy broke in a new Zebco 808 fishing reel. So many of our spin cast reels, from the heavy use have become grinders. When someone hooks a fish a loud screeching and crying of the abused moving reel parts sings out to pierce the quiet of nature and everyone knows you are fighting a fish in. With the smooth action of this reel I never heard when she had a fish on.

Note the snake head cane in the rod holder. It's positioned to look down into the water to be visible to any catfish looking up and it serves the same purpose of as the gargoyles on the towers of the medieval churches of Europe. It convinces the fish that if you get past that thing scaring you it's all safe and warm in the boat. 

Actually Cathy still needs the cane as assistance and support. Turns out her femur is narrow at the top and wider at the bottom and the bone needs to grow some more to attach to the prothesis in the wide part. She needs to use the cane for support so the bone cells, which grow slowly are trying to hit a moving target which is what would  happen to all this apparatus without the support of the cane.      

While our fishing areas were uncrowded there were a lot of people out enjoying the fall weather. We spotted this large boat in the back of the Hanks Creek cove. It's the biggest one I have seen on the lake lately. 

The boat ramp was quiet the comedy of errors. There were people in boats blocking the ramp by water, others that just pulled up after loading to the top of the ramp to secure their rig for towing all the while blocking room for others to maneuver their trailers, one guy whose boat came untied from the dock and drifted away (he swam for it and I rescued one of his flip flops that floated by) and the lady who paddled up in a canoe to Cathy as she was waiting in our boat for me to back the trailer down and asked if she had anything to drink. She declined an offer of water.    

 

By the way if you have this murderers row of catfish eaters over it takes and least 22 catfish to feed them all. We were lucky that was how many we caught. 

I did not measure how much ketchup was used but I have heard rumors of a shortage of that condiment in stores.