Another Day of Retirement Knocked Out and the Great 2022 Yearly Catfish Total...

 We went to the lake for the last fishing trip of the year (probably but this day is still early) and knocked another day of retirement off the calendar. This marks a year Cathy has been retired and I'm seniority riding along at 2 years and 8 months. Our retirement/financial advisor, a guy who calls me up a couple of times a year which through diligent internet research I have discovered happen to be on the two very worst days of stock market performance assures us that at this pace we have enough money to last until we are 90 years old and that takes into account the cost of buying the name brand Cheetos. I'm not sure where the yearly catfish report figures into that plan but here are the numbers. 

         The count is down somewhat from the past couple of years. Seems that we caught 286 catfish in 14 trips which averages to about 19 fish a trip. Cathy had big fish at 8 pound 7 ounces. This total does not reflect other species such as bream, bass, white bass, whiting, speckled trout, snook, the single ribbon fish I caught or does it count salt water, swimming, skiing or canoe trips.

The count for past years was 572 catfish in 2018, 582 in 2020 and 492 in 2021. 2018 was a really good year and 2020 and 2021 might reflect COVID isolation when we did not go anywhere else but the lake as 2017's count was more in line with this year's numbers at 252. I could not find a count for 2019. If you do let me know. 

It's good to run those numbers like this. I would not want to show a documented decline that might indicate to the kids we are slipping and require more assistance and supervision. 

By the way we did catch 7 catfish yesterday and it was pretty slow. We came home and that was exactly the right amount, along with a few fries and hushpuppies and a poor man's spinach Rockefeller that Cathy made for us to have a good supper.

Actually I had a taste for grilled or broiled fillets with sautéed bok choy and onions but Cathy wanted the traditional southern thang so you see how that seniority thang is working out.    

In case you are wondering people that fished with us took a few of the past year's catches home, we donated a bag of fillets to the Joseph House so that residents and staff could have a good fresh dinner and I traded a few pounds for produce from a friend's garden. The rest we ate. No fish were ever frozen. 

The lake is pretty in the winter, water is clear, 53 degrees and is still low. I would like to see it under the cypress tress for some slip corking. Judging from the water filling the Gilland Creek bottom on the way to the lake we got quite the rain the other night and it should start to fill. 

We didn't count those bike and rod expeditions either.  

Why not me?