Fish Catching Travel

Buy more baits, you can never have enough!

The weather has kept me in the house the last 3 days.  Can you say bored stiff?  We did not get the total amount of rain they have been talking about, but we did get around 5 inches.  It is cool this Sunday morning, around 60, and the wind is blowing out of the NNE at around 35mph.  It really is feeling like fall around here.  Hope those of you on the Texas coast did not get flooded out, but with all the rain on the coast and the super high tides some places did get wet.

*********************

The only good thing about the weather was there was some good football on yesterday.  My Hogs played a really good game and when the chips were down they came through in a 4 overtime game.  It gets us closer to .500 and who knows, we might even squeak out enough wins to make a bowl.  Only time will tell.

Texas A&M on the other hand is heading back down to earth, or should I say crashing.  It was almost hard to watch as they could do nothing on offense.  And again they put in another quarterback late in the game.  Not sure where they are headed, but as I said last week there has never been a real successful 2 quarterback system.  They better figure it out quick or it may be the big collapse.

*******************

Just some stuff I have been thinking about since I am stuck in the house.

1.  When you head to the bank with the trolling motor to get a bait untangled, as soon as you get it free turn the nose of the boat around towards the direction you came.  It will keep you from burning up the bank in the direction you are headed.

2.  Next time you head out take a minute and walk around the whole boat and trailer and look things over.  In the last year I have found a bleb on a  trailer tire, a bearing going out on the trailer, the bottom of the bolt in the swing away tongue sheared off, and braid trailing from the prop.  A minute of checking could save hours of hassle and big $$$.

3.  As the braid on your reel starts to lose it’s color and get a little rough just reel it on another reel, which puts the unused section out, and you are good as new.

4.  Switch your trailer lights to LEDs, since I did that on both trailers last year I have not had a light burn out.

5.  Take a second and put your finger in all the guides on your rods.  You will be surprised what you will feel and what needs to be replaced.  Nothing like losing a big fish to a bad guide.

6.  Make a plan to take at least one person fishing you have never fished with.

7.  Don’t waste fish or game.  I know things get lost in the freezer, but keeping fish or game and letting them freezer burn and then throwing it out is wasteful.  It is part of being a responsible outdoorsman.

8.  Sit down and actually read the yearly TPWD fish and game regulations, lots of interesting stuff in there you are actually responsible for knowing.

9.  Got a gripe or suggestion?  Let TPWD know about it.  We have a responsibility to protect our rights, and while the bureaucrats would like to think otherwise, they work for us.  A perfect example is the giving of our Share A Lunker fry to a rich guy for a private lake which was only brought to light by someone who was watching.  If you are not informed and willing to comment you have no complaint.

10.  If you fish the salt go out and check the expiration date on your flares which now seem to be required on anything that floats on saltwater.  And do not be surprised if you are stopped by the Coast Guard and ticketed for not having your throwable cushion out and readily available.  Actually makes sense doesn’t it?

11.  No matter where you are vote for any constitutional amendment protecting our rights to hunt and fish that is on the ballot in your state.  Nothing chaps my ass more than seeing anti-hunting and fishing nut cases trying to restrict our rights.  There is only one reason that we have fish and game coming out our ears – sportsman and their license fees, along with the taxes on equipment.  We are responsible for the plentiful fish and game in this country, not some panty waist, Birkenstock wearing, tree hugger.

*********************

I got this comment, and while there was no name on it, I wanted to share it with you.

For the swim jig, you can steady reel it to boat or shore, or lift and drop along the way, or try some of both until the fish tell you what they want for that day. Flippin’ is another way to fish it if you come across heavy cover. Just drop into cover and work up and down.

The most important part of this comment is what I harp on all the time – Let the fish tell you how they want it.  Fast, slow, with shakes, hops, you can use it any way you can use a jig.  And that my friends is why it is so important to concentrate on each and every cast.  What you just did to catch a fish when you were retrieving your bait may be the ticket to the best day of your life.  We all get to talking, looking around, daydreaming on the boat.  But if you make each cast intentional, ie:  going to reel it slow, fast, hop it, whatever, it makes it so much easier to duplicate.  So thanks for the comment whoever you are.  Feel free to comment anytime..

*******************

Fall is really here and it is cast and blast time for lots of folks.  My buddy Clyde in Arkansas called me the other morning when he was on the way to the deer woods to be followed by some fishing on Bull Shoals Lake.

1/2 of my cast and blast ;missed a real nice buck with my muzzle loader !

That will do all day long!

Nice bass dude, to bad about the buck but you never could hit anything anyway.  Reminds me of a shooting story.  Many years ago, back when Clyde and I ran the old tackle store, he decided to go to a turkey shoot.  He had bought a really old shotgun and of all things he won.  He gets back to the store and somebody looks down the barrel of that old shotgun and it is bent, and I mean a 1/4″ or more.  Heck I could probably hit more with that gun than I do now with my Remington.  So nice job on the bass and better luck with the deer.  It is a long season.

*******************

It is Monday morning as I post this.  The wind is really supposed to die later today and tomorrow looks good in that department.  So it will be up early and off to POC Tuesday.  It will be real interesting to see what all this crazy weather has done.  Not sure how the freshwater will affect the bay, but Calhoun County is still under the flood watch, so we will just have to see how it goes.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines