First Fishing Trip of the Year and the 10 year Log...

It started out a tough day on the lake this past Thursday. A little windy, from the West, not dangerously so but brother in law Matt and I stayed up to the north rather than head south to bigger waters. It was where we had the best bite last time out but it was slow going. It might have been because we felt a little under the gun since my daughter Katie was planning on coming from Chicago this weekend and wanted to practice her fish frying skills and we needed fish bad. 

Nothing is so inspirational as being in a bind like this and our deep water holes along the old river channel were just not giving up the fish. We were working a few out and by keeping everything were slowly building a meal. Then we decided to give the shallows a try and sure enough the fat blue cat and big channels were feeding up before the polar vortex that's expected in a few days.   

Last hour of the day was the magic hour as we found the cats about 5' deep under slip corks in the inlet we call "Old Ginormus Cove" in honor of the biggest catfish we ever caught which weighed 32 pounds there.   

Matt with a nice blue. 

This bird, a limpkin shuffled in the shallows all the while we fished the area and paid us no mind. I have seen a bunch of these lately, on the lake at at the Big Slough Wilderness Area also. They are mussel eaters. So are blue cats. I've gathered the freshwater mussels during times of low water like this, shelled them and baited trot lines for good catches of catfish.   

All those bass fishermen pay big money live scope these days. He has it built in 

Look over my shoulder to the right and see the hump and the dark spot in the woods. That's the spot Cathy calls "the horseshoe" because of the shape the trees make as they follow the edge of the water when the lake is up. Usually a good 5' deep against those trees Cathy has pulled 10 pounders out of there. Check the left of the photo at the log horizontal close to the bank. 

I think that log is the same one where I photographed these nutria rats  sometime about 25 to 30 years ago during another period of low water. It has about rotted away and only shows it's self about every 10 years when we have a good drought. Comparing the photos Mother Nature has made some other changes to the area but the fish still follow these old creek channels looking for their supper which feed out to the deeper nearby submerged Angelina River channel. 

I originally had that nutria rat picture on an early internet photo hosting site where one day I noticed it had something like 9000 views. Go figure. I think I also have hard copies of other photos from this day of the rats up close that I may have to dig out and scan.  

Another good blue. You can see the nutria log laying horizontal on your right. That's an osprey nest on the left behind me.  

Final total was 23 good fish. I culled some of the first small ones we kept throwing back at least 5 fish. Katie, Peter and kids got snowed in with all flights out of Chicago canceled due to blizzard. I saved about 6 big fillets for broiled catfish and cream sauce and bagged a big ziplock of frying pieces. 

Good work under pressure if you can get it. The catfish count is off to a good start but I'm tucking it in for a few days.