Neches River Fishing Report...

We made the trip to Chandler River Park on the Neches River to fish the white and yellow bass run. White bass were in short supply and we only caught a couple but the yellow bass, which have no size restriction or limit cooperated and in about three and a half hours or so we had supper.   

I can imagine this area could be crowded if the bite was on good for a weekend day but we were pretty much by ourselves at a favorite spot where we have caught these fish three years in a row now. We had pretty much stopped fishing and were sitting on a log eating lunch when a couple of guys came by and asked how we were doing and when we said a few they immediately stopped and started fishing. We had spread our chairs pretty wide on the bank taking up a lot of space so for a community hole like this I don't know which was the worst manners but since the bite had slowed we let them have it.  

I'd like to bring my canoe here sometime and I did talk to a kayaker who claimed it was the worst year in 30 years he has been fishing the spring run. I had seen some internet chatter that the yellow bass had taken over this part of the river. That's ok with me as the white bass is a bit of a course meat and I've eaten enough of that in my life and prefer the more panfish type quality of the yellows. We don't need a freezer full of these things. Nothing is fishier that a package of white bass fillets caught during the spring run thawed out for a 4th of July fish fry. I doubt the yellows would freeze well either.   

SOMEBODY said I looked like an old man in this photo. Maybe just a river rat. 

Thanks to my friend Quince who gave me a package of inline Mepps style spinners purchased off TEMU. I'd say they produced a dozen of these fish with second place going to the old favorite Roadrunner and third a simple ball head jig.    

Without the TEMU lures we would have had a nice fish fry for me and Cathy but with them we had enough fish to invite the Zamoras over. 

Yellow bass fillets makes an attractive plate. 

If you invite this crew you better have 21 fish. 

I also made a dew berry cobbler with a bag of berries the boys picked last spring and with the vines loaded with blooms I thought I better clear it out of the freezer. 

Sitting around the fire made everyone want smores. I passed on these but the warmth felt good. On a windy March day I don't think anything can be colder than sticking your hand in an ice chest full of white bass to fetch another fish to fillet. Somehow we will carry on.   

 

The Great Spring Break Catfish Roundup...

We headed out to the lake with the Flying Zambroskis who have been on spring break. The wind was out of the perfect direction for some catfish slip corking at one of our favorite spots which by the way did not produce last trip. That trip turned into a good one, just had to hunt the fish down but this one was high on the excitement plan as everyone had some good action. 

If you note the details of this picture you see a blue cat on the floor of the boat in a net. The deck crew was busy netting the first fish while the second fish was busy almost pulling Cathy's second rod in the lake. 

 We had a practice session on casting and reeling the day before this trip so the boys were ready and Luca hooked and landed his personal best blue cat which we did not weigh but I imagine a good solid 5 pounds at least.

  Note the orange marker buoy to the right of the net handle in the photo. We use these to mark drop offs and chummed areas. Ezra hooked a fish I would guess in the 5 to 7 pound range which tangled him in the buoy which then hung solidly on the bottom and between all the pulling and the fish fighting and everyone trying to help managed to break 15 pound test line. Ezra was not disappointed as he got to see how big the fish was and it was an exciting experience for all of us and a good man against screaming beast struggle. This is an indicator that Ezra enjoys the quality of the time spent on the water over the quantity of fish boated.     

Besides he caught more and got to drive the boat. 

The fish were in water about 6' deep next to a flooded island. We used slip cork rigs. If you don't know about these they are rigged by using a bobber stop knot on your line at the desired depth you wish to fish followed by the cork and then a weight and a treble hook. We have been doing good lately with a smaller size hook than we usually use.  

Milo, who fought and threw a rusty fit to get his turn at backyard casting the day before seemed content to laugh like a little manic every time a fish came in the boat. 

With the big fish coming right off the bat and all the excitement I was slow getting on the leader board but I finally manage a couple of channel cats and one decent blue. It seems we are catching more and bigger blues this year because it normally takes 20 or so channel cats of fillet size like I'm holding here to feed the Zambroskis and lately they have been sated with 9 or 10 blue cats. 

I do note that the guided catfishery similar to Lakes Tawakoni and Texoma  seems to have arrived on Sam Rayburn with guides advertising services by posting pictures of ice chests full of fish like Luca's and usually one big double digit cat. I knew this would happen as techniques improved and spread and also with the use of the live scope fish finders. 

Just for the record I've fished that spot in the photo of me and Milo for almost 50 years and caught at least 7 species of fish there. My dad showed me the place and now my grandkids know it too.     

Final count was 12 fish. A very rewarding, happy day on the water. 

First Fishing Report 2015...

We had a successful road test of Cathy's replaced left shoulder (Done on Dec. 2, 2024) with our first fishing trip of 2025. With Cathy, her brother Matt and myself we totaled 19 cats in 2-3 hours fishing, wore shorts, no shirts and had a great time with family and friends for a fish fry afterwards. 

The fish were in the area of the lake called the Canyon. The area has islands, underwater humps, a flooded rail road tram and the fish were 4 feet deep. We fished punchbait under slip corks. This has been our go to spot for a couple of years and we haven't fished our old shallow water favorites in the Deer Stand area of the lake, The Place and The Horseshoe very often at all. Maybe one day again we will give those a try.

Cathy gives the shoulder a good work out netting a fish for Matt. That's my fish hanging in the foreground and get a good look at our rigs. We use some of the Bass Pro Shops Thill style floats but the old saltwater popping corks work well also.

This channel cat was one of the smaller fish of the day. Half our catch was blue cats. You can see us tried up close on the bushes and I doubt we cast much over 20' feet to the fish. 

It's getting to be tats out fat's out weather. Lots of interesting fishing log info for this day. Cathy caught her first retirement fish on this day in 2022. In 2019 we caught them shallow with a wind chill of 33. 

Cathy flexing the guns for her 7.3 pound blue cat. I bet the 4 biggest weighted 20 pounds and all total went a good 35-40 on the hoof. 

WE had spent the prior evening trading fishing stories with Chuy and Maria so we gave them a call to come eat. There were more fish stories. The Zamoras came and they ate catfish like it was their job. We managed to hang on to a couple of the big fillets for some later fancy cooking, Matt took enough for a dinner and this morning we delivered a serving to Father D who is laid up with a back surgery. I might be able to make a po-boy later with our left overs. 

We have a couple of camper trips planned but might look at a date for Hanks Creek camping and cooking soon. If you see us stop by.  

 

 

  

     

The November Fishing Report...

 

Lord I died and went down on the bayou in Louisiana or was it some where near Beaumont or maybe West Memphis. At the very least the ghost of my late mom and dad were sitting by me while I ate this old school dinner of whole fried catfish on a bed of Zummo's rice dressing with hushpuppies and fried alligator pear on the side.     

Even though we noted a big goose egg swelled up on a trailer tire that will need replacement we put on the spare and  headed across the lake for a moderate good middle of the afternoon fish bite. Fish did not seem grouped up but maybe it was the time of the day so we hit several spots all about 24'-26' feet deep and found a few catfish laying right on the bottom at each one. Final total was 23. Most were decent size with a mix of channel and blue cats. Since there is no minimum size restriction on catfish we threw is several like those on the plate because I felt like eating whole fried.  

Cathy with a fat blue cat. Catfish count is going to run low this year because we have been occupied with other things and our outdoor activities are split between boating and travel trailering. That's ok, we will live and maybe a little longer since we haven't eaten as much fried catfish.  

Matt lands another nice blue. 

I think that's why we call him Mr. Whiskers. 

We put enough of the big fillets into the freezer that we could have a grilled fish dinner for four. That will probably happen in early December because Cathy is scheduled for that shoulder in the foreground to be replaced and it will be sometime before she's casting and reeling again. The rest of those cats made a nice dinner for Miguel and the boys with a sampler package sent up to Mary on the labor and delivery night shift at the hospital. 

I have been reading a Tennessee Williams bio that when it relates the period when he moved to New Orleans and describes it as a city "...famous for it's catfish..." This blog won't equal the literary greatness of Williams but my fried catfish is pretty famous and the fishing report is ever popular.   

More Beach Camping and Shark Fishing...

We made another beach camping trip to the spot by Brazoria County Free Beach beach access road #3 (here's a tip) that we are calling Pop Pop's Secret Fish Spot. This is the third trip of the summer here, once in the old Rpod and now the second beach trip for the new camper which if I see some kind of bumper sticker that says "beach house" I may purchase it and sick it somewhere prominent because that's how we feel down here camping. Some almost always stops and asks, "Is it just free to camp here?"  

We could see a few other campers down the beach but not close enough to feel crowded as people that camp here are looking for solitude and the weekend beach traffic was also low.   

Fall is the time for the Texas Redfish run but while we caught no reds there was plenty of ankle bier shark action to be had. Final total was four sharks, three lady fish (poor man's tarpon), a sting ray, a small pompano and several whiting. We ate the biggest shark, a 27 inchers (gotta be 24") cooked on the iron cooktop with Jamaican jerk spices, peppers, onions and cheese as fish tacos and sometime I'd like to catch enough whiting for a meal as they are good and I also like to eat the pompano if big enough to fillet.    

 

There's always a variety of opinions as to whether shark is good eating. This was a very mild tasting black tip, not all kinds of shark meat is created equal, and I think it's important to fillet the shark as soon as he is caught. When they die the body fluids pollute the meat so don't haul one around in the bottom of the boat, the ice chest or on a stringer till you are finished fishing. If the good fish, trout, reds and flounder are biting toss the shark back but in this case I was able to tend to the cleaning properly.  

By the way this shark was in the first gut, or the first little deep spot you come to on wading out, very close to the beach. 

Plenty of good bait was available and all fish caught on live finger mullet on a falling tide. So many mullet left in tidal pools that the grandkids Warren and Coraline got good experience throwing the cast net. 

Here's a sting ray, which they say this makes good hut bait for shark but I removed the barb so he's harmless incase I step on him the next trip. I've been stung and it took 9 weeks for the wound to stop draining. That could be considered the mildest outcome you can expect from something like this.  

Coraline with mullet. 

Cathy and friends

Warren was much more interested in fishing if he caught the bait. Note the clear water. It's the time of the year to hit the beach.  

If the fish aren't biting take a note from the seagulls. Sit around until they start again. 

The End Times Blog Post...

 

Early on in history man thought the end times would be around just anytime. I'm sure the building of the mounds in Poverty Point, La which we recently toured had some element of that expectation built in to the goings on there 3000-5000 years ago. I'm a believer but no Bible scholar but Jesus told the disciples he would be back soon. He didn't say how soon but he tried to leave the impression of a flexible day or time. They thought pretty soon so all gathered in the Upper Room to wait it out. Naturally trying to know the mind of God they were wrong and pretty soon had to go back to day to day activities which for Early Christians was beheading, crucifying and being stoned. Speaking of being stoned it's reported in the news this morning including the New York Times that sharks off the coast of Rio de Janeiro have increased levels of cocaine in their systems.     

Now we know that we have pooped the nest enough that the effects of global warming, yesterday was the hottest day the Earth has ever seen, look to be irreversible. It seems that if you are rich that's not going to matter. You will be able to afford food, shade and air conditioning and probably feel a bit of empathy for the poor folks who probably are not the ones doing the most cocaine.   

Apparently the cocaine in the sharks as well as anti depressants, various medicines and birth control is due to the sewage of all the the people ingesting these things then flowing into the ocean which means into the food chain, the air, the rain and so on.  

So I guess we might arrive at the fact that this might be a better sign of the end times than anything we have had so far. Looks like everyone is high and there's too much poo and pee. I'm not against getting high. It's a you do you world these days but if you have ever had your order hopelessly fouled up at a drive through hamburger joint everybody being high is going to have some effect somewhere. 

But hey, maybe the end won't matter that much anyway. Those guys in the Upper Room had some misconceptions at first and it will be ok if you don't have it quite right either.   

Turtle Soup...

Last time I was in New Orleans I went to see a band at Chickie Wah-Wah on Canal St. A few blocks away was one of my favorite restaurants in the Crescent City, Mandina's. As things go sometimes, the best laid plans and all, I did not make it over there. The next day, we were camped across one of the longest bridges in the world in Mandeville at the State Park there I was delighted to learn that there was a Mandina's near by. Maybe not as cool as the old Mandina's uptown in New Orleans that had it's origins as a grocery store making sandwiches for working class Italian immigrants in 1898 but I was still able to satisfy a Jones for their famous turtle soup. 

Don't worry, since we did not have a shot of sherry to serve on the side like they do in Mandina's, it comes out in a shot glass on the side of the plate and you dump in in the soup yourself for flavor we did not make soup out of this turtle. Cathy claims she has cleaned and cooked a turtle before although it's probably been about 40 years ago since she did such so if we had had sherry...

Not an appetizer although I did dream last night that I was fishing at the beach and someone cooked stuffed crabs that were so good that I ate shell, legs and all.     

 

The Uptown Mandina's opened as the restaurant we know today in 1932 in the same building the Mandina family opened the original grocery store and the family still runs it. There's a lot of history there to go with the food. The old days and all that. They are important, especially when eating turtle soup. 

 

Ate $130 of Catfish Maybe We Should Call This The Eating Report...

I have often written about the four stages to an outdoors man or women's life. #1, wants to catch them all. #2 wants to catch a big one. #3 wants nice gear and #4 just glad to be out there. We probably spend about 8 years mired in that wants to catch them all phase but lately I think we need a #5 and that would be happy to get enough for a fish dinner. Yesterday we had 9 catfish and that fed the three fishermen, the Zamora boys and we sent a care package up to the night nurses at Woodland Height's Labor and Delivery.  

Things were off to a slow start. The lake is still dropping due to work on the dam rip rap and 4' water where we caught fish last weekend is now 2 foot water. Water clarity is still poor after the big rains and when we first started there was a bit of a ripple of wind on the water which provides some shade for critters like catfish that have no hat brims or eye lids but soon died and we never caught another fish after that. Cathy had first fish and it was a good one.  

Matt took this fish on one of the light bite spinning rigs. 

Things were looking pretty poor for the home team and blog writer but I finally caught one nice blue and a couple of channel cats. 

Speaking of eating catfish everyone remembers what they were doing when they first had Pop Pop's fried catfish. Milo gets his fist bite of catfish. 

While we have not had the numbers lately we have had nice blue cats and Cathy and I usually tuck away a package or two of fillets that are an easy thaw out with just enough for two people. I think I ate catfish 5 times this week. We had stuffed cream chees and spinach catfish, fish tacos, catfish corn chowder, left over catfish corn chowder and then the fried catfish with a couple of thick blackened pieces that ate like a steak after this trip.

I checked Ralph and Kacoo's and on the lunch menu they have thin cut catfish, charro beans, french fries and hushpuppy for $13. If you just count what me and Cathy ate in catfish that's at least $130 worth of dinners. I'll include a venmo link at the end so the nurses from Woodland can pony up.     

Here's the catch. As the lake continues to drop we won't have the opportunity to tie up and fish right next to the willow and cypress trees so it will make finding just the right spot with the right depth challenging. I guess if we get enough for two that's a $26 meal. 

 

Shallow Water Catfish and a Baked Stuffed Catfish Recipe...

 To continue our recovery from covid it seemed like a fishing trip would be definitely the ticket. A little deep breathing exercise, some sun and a chance for a good heathy fresh caught supper seemed like just the ticket. 

There were signs of spring on big Lake Sam Rayburn. The boat ramp parking lot pretty full but still easy parking, the lake is up though rumors persist that the level will be dripped for construction work on the damn riprap, water temps in the shallows hitting that magic 65 degrees where everything where all fish in the lake get hungry and the sights of folks moving around and planting fish attractor spots. 

We hit the area called the Canyon for the first time since the water came up. It's a place of islands and shallow flats with an old submerged railroad tram crossing what was a hilltop before the lake came in and deep water near by. We caught mostly channel cats in about 4 feet if water as opposed to the mostly blue cats we had been catching across the lake at the spot known as the deer stand but I did take big fish with this blue. I experimenting with the saltwater popping corks, giving a little pop now and then to attract fish. He never took the big cork under instead just swimming off with it due south down the lake before I turned him back.  

Cathy swings one in. Usually I set up with the wind and it makes the corks lay out for better placement on the spot but I marked a deeper spot with a floating buoy, let the crosswind drift the baits till the reached a shallower spot and that's where the fish held, right at that change, less than a foot.   

News Flash! Dead bait on the bottom fisherman catches bass on lure. Since were were recovering from COVID I told Cathy I did not want to clean 30 or 40 fish but just a few cats for supper and maybe try to locate some white bass. No white bass but she caught one and I caught 3 of these.   

They were light colored from the muddy water but in the photos they look like Kentucky Spotted Bass. WE tossed them back but these are legal fish. If camping would have been a nice blackened fillet on the grill. 

We ended up with 10 catfish. We caught them between 1 and 3pm, a midday bite. As you may know Cathy is not an early riser. I don't think it has occurred to her that if  she fished early she could be home for a nap later. 

I took the big blue and the largest channel cat, four fillets to make a cream cheese bread crumb stuffed supper. 

Soften cream cheese and chop fresh spinach. Fry bacon and reserve stir fry celery, onion, peppers in the grease. Mix these veggies with cream cheese, spinach, a squeeze of fresh lemon and one cup of bread crumbs. Season Cajun, Italian, Greek, your pick. Place two fillets on greased cookie sheet on top of a bit of butter and top with stuffing. Top this with the other two fillets and a sprinkle of your seasoning choice. Top each with a slice of bacon. I baked for 15 minutes at 350 then broiled to brown a bit. Served with cheesy oven roasted potatoes topped with the reserved bacon crumbles.       

  The shallow bite is on. It will keep you healthy. I'm ordering more catfish bait today. 

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