Outing with my Sons

We had a rare treat last weekend; all my kids were home with us.  We love that.  After sleeping in a little, and an afternoon picnic, my sons and I hit a couple of ponds to see if we could hook up with a few bass.

Pond 1:  So weedy we almost immediately left for pond 2.

Pond 2:  Excellent water quality, and the water was way up.  It had even flooded the kayak launch and fishing pier.  Drew and I were skunked, but Zac landed a nice bass on a Junebug colored 10″ powerbait worm.  That’s one effective bait, by the way.

Good fishing . . .

 

 

Spring Sunset

Last Sunday evening I revisited a pond I used to frequent.  I discovered the pond while waiting for my daughter during her piano lessons.  I’d cast for 45 minutes or so, catch a few bass, and pick her up and go home.  

This is a park pond, and as is usual for small bodies of water, the pond has undergone drastic changes in just a few years.  Silting, weeds, algae have changed this pond to a shallower, dirtier  body of water than it used to be.  The water level is also several feet low, and hopefully some rain will improve conditions.  

I did manage one  half-pound bass around sunset, and was treated to this spectacular sunset.

Losing

A while back I wrote about a private 2 man bass tournament between me and my youngest son.  Since that post, Drew has been . . . Busy.

On a recent trip to a lake in Oklahoma, he landed his personal best largemouth bass, at 10lb, 2oz!  And this was less than 24 hours since his previous personal best at 6 lbs.

Not long after that I fished with a brother-on-law, and certainly caught a few, but nothing approaching Drew’s trophys.

So here is the current standing.  We fish through October 31, 2017.  I have some fishing to do.

PK Tailrace, Brazos River

As sometimes happens in our family, we all descended upon Wichita Falls, where many of my clan still live, for a wedding shower.  Since it was a ladies only shower, wouldn’t you know it, a fishing trip broke out.  We actually talked about it in loose terms for a month, firmed it up 5 days before, and seriously planned for about 16 hours.

I’ve wanted to fish the tailrace below Possum Kingdom for a few years.  My aim has been to hit the white bass run with fly rod in hand.  We were a little early for the Sandies this year, and I plan on returning when I can.

The tailrace is accessible from Tx Hwy 16.  This stretch of river is part of the John Graves Scenic Riverway.  Mr. Graves was a beloved Texas Author, who, after learning of plans for more dams on the Brazos, went for one last canoe trip to say goodbye to the beautiful Brazos.  There is still a lot of beauty on the Brazos, though.  S.C. Gwynne wrote a great peice for Texas Monthly about Mr. Grave’s book, and you can read it here.

I fully expected the trip to be about White Bass and Stripers with a few trout mixed in.  As the day wore on it was clear that trout were the main attraction, and the only tippet I had was some 6 lb mono that I use for warm water species, and a handful of dry flies.   The heavy tippet was just too much for the trout, which were rising all around me most of the day.  Everything else in my box was in the streamer family.  No-one in our party caught any fish, but enjoyed a great day on the river, a 5 star shore lunch of ham sandwiches, Funions and oranges, and the fellowship of family.  I couldn’t ask for more.

 

Panhandle Road Trip

After a few very busy weeks at work I was able to hop in my pickup and make a visit to Childress, Texas. Childress is at the lower right corner of the Texas Panhandle, only a few minutes from Oklahoma. More importantly, Childress is where my daughter, son-in-law and my grandson live. Here are a few photos from this trip.

Cemetery Near Harold, Texas

Sunset on Highway 287

The Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River just North of Childress, Texas

Urban Angling

A Friday afternoon, after work, and unseasonably mild.  Unseasonably implies a normal and expected weather condition, so it’s a little hard to say that when you live in Texas.  Though, in January we still expect it to be generally colder than warmer.  At the end of a text thread between Julie and me, she wrote “Why don’t you go fishing?”  That’s all it took.  When my wife suggests it, I will go fishing.  

I haven’t dug my conventional tackle box out since moving, so a quick stop at Academy for a bag of senkos, hooks, worm weights and a spinnerbait provisioned me for a few hours of fun.  

The first pond I visited gave up two bass, each about a pound and a half.  Both were on the three dollar spinnerbait.
 After a brief reacquaintance with this favorite pond I decided to hit up another, this one closer to home. Nothing in the fish department at pond 2, but a spectacular sunset soothed that disappointment.

Bass Tournament

Well, I just entered my first bass tournament.  Ever heard of the Bass Master Classic?  This is not that one.  This is one between me and my youngest son.  Here are the rules . . .

1. Largemouth Bass only.
2.  Cumulative weight of best 5 fish.
3.  Artificial lures only
4. Weighed on lb/oz digital scale and photographed showing fish and scale.
5. Ends October 31, 2017, end of day.
6. Loser buys winner $50 academy gift card.

Not having a digital fishing scale, I naturally started looking them up on Amazon.  The first one that interested me only records pounds and tenths of pounds, so that was eliminated.  I did have some rather entertaining reading, though, while browsing the questions section:

We’ve asked Julie to be in charge of some kind of virtual weigh-in and awards ceremony when we’re all together for Thanksgiving.  Meanwhile I guess I need to turn my attention to patches, hats, tackle and corporate sponsors.  And fishing.