FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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Time to head back to my warm and fuzzy spot Friday morning.  It has been a couple of weeks since I fished the lake but after my last couple of trip results I will be happy catching a wad of shorts pitching, and if I am lucky, a good fish or two thrown in.  I also fixed up a couple of the MJ rigs, a spinner in the tail of my stick worm, to try.  And there is one specific thing I hope to accomplish, OR NOT, is whether my GPS is done.  (Humminbird will not fix any unit over 3 years old.)  It has been acting up the last 3 trips so this is last call.  I retraced, checked, and cleaned all connections from battery to unit and will know in about 2 minutes whether that was it, which I doubt.  But you never know.

Our temps continue to be nothing short of oppressive.  Obviously there are heat warnings out and some places will see a heat index of 110+.   As a side note, the Boss is seeing lots of working guys in the ER who are suffering some form of heat issues.  No surprise.  You must hydrate, end of story.  And the harder you work the more water you should pound.  And that includes fishermen.  So tomorrow will be on the water at daylight, with plenty of water in the cooler.  It will be interesting to see how the day goes.  I mean I can catch fish, right?

Now for the funny part.  I woke up about 4:00 am on Friday morning, thought it was because I was excited to be heading to the lake.  But No!  It was so I could puke my brains out.  It was ugly.  (Aren’t you glad I shared that?)  The Boss said it was viral and basically sleep and ibuphrophen was the size of it.  So here it is Sunday morning and I have not made it in the boat yet.  But tomorrow is a new day and it will be Coleto at daylight.

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Weather

97/75.  Partly cloudy with a 10% chance of rain.  Winds  S 10 – 20 mph.

Lake Level

Today  94.45 msl.  2 weeks ago  94.91 msl.  (Still on the slow but steady decline and it is getting low!)

Solunar Times

Best  6:52 am to 8:52 am.  (Only relevant period.)

********************Get inhaled

This is a bass.  I actually caught a few today.

After not hitting the water for a week just heading up lake as the sun was coming up was nice.  The water temp was 92 at the ramp and 90 up lake with a light wind.  And most of the lake has some color to it, seems like a lot more than a couple of weeks ago.  But the big thing  –  The last foot it has dropped has really made a difference.  The piers at the ramp are almost completely out of the water, and if it keeps up it won’t be long before you have to be real careful putting in as the ramp ends and there is a drop off.  It is not as low as it was 3 years ago, but it is headed that way.  I had 4 goals today, catch a fish, keep supper, see if the GPS was still insane, and then drop the boat off for it’s annual maintenance.  And I got all 4 done.

I was concerned that the wood I have been pitching to might be to shallow, and basically it is getting there fast.  The first 2 or 3 bites I missed, they are tricky, but after that is was just as it has been for weeks, except for one thing, they are all small.  Of the 11 caught pitching the watermelon red stick worm, only 2 measured, both like the one above.  To bad for the first guy, he is the guest of honor at supper tonight.  The wind laid some and it started getting hot so time to fill out supper.

The only reason I am showing you this is my mastery of both catfish and tilapia continues.  Crazy.

The point separating the ramp cove has both whites and largemouth on it.  Trolling in the 15′ range was the ticket today.  Watching the locator the fish were definitely not nearly as active.  Instead of spread out the whites were on the sand point and the bass were more towards the dam.  For some reason there were not nearly the numbers of shad as there was the last trip.  But they did bite and 2 more bass and 5 small whites came over the side.  So with the Boss’s supper order filled I called it a day around noon.

Today was just go catch a fish and eat it day.  Not sure how the lake will fish if it keeps dropping like this.  The big sand hump has come up on the island, so if you head to the lake be aware some areas are getting pretty shallow.  Today most of the fish were in one area up lake, a channel bank with cover near the deepest water in the area.  But duplicating it down lake in a place or 2 resulted in not a bite.

With Colorado trout fishing on the way this week dropping off the boat was the real important deal.  I figure if I drop it off and give him a return date it might get done sooner.  But hope springs eternal, I just know that maintenance is a mandatory and it sure pays in the long run.  Unfortunately the GPS continues turning off and on, and it froze up once.  So as far as that goes, looks like right in the trash.  I love boating.

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Sad Day

My condolences to the family and friends of the young man who drowned off Grass Island.  What a tough loss and a reminder that the ocean is not your friend, it has no soul, and it only takes a second.  There are so many things that can hurt you.  In fact, the Coast Guard official they interviewed in the paper said there had been maybe 3 or 4 drownings trying to retrieve a boat that got away, I can not imagine those families loss.  I have no direct information on how or what happened this time but it brings up something that happened to Aaron and I just last month.

The Power Pole is not an Anchor!

I always use both the Power Pole and an anchor when I wade.  I fish by myself so often that the thought of losing the boat has always scared me.  In Arkansas we didn’t jump out of perfectly good boats.  On our last trip to Baffin Aaron and I used only the Power Pole and the boat got away.  It could have been a long night on the island or much, much, worse.  This is not a Power Pole complaint, just a fact.  I am not sure the Power Pole was ever intended to be the sole anchor on an untended boat.  So take it for what you will, but it is one of those “better safe than sorry.”

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A fishing license fiasco! – Or watch the clerk at Academy closely.

The initial plan was to fish today (Thursday) but I had some banking issues to settle.  Bank America is leaving Victoria, and will not even have a cash machine.  So after 20+ years with, both personally and professionally, time to move.  We already alerted all the auto deposits and withdrawal folks and that was squared up.  To close and organize the new accounts should be no problem.  It basically involved 6 accounts in 2 banks, and it took plenty of time to square it all up today, but looks like it is all done.  What a hassle.  But what I thought might take a little while was a breeze, so it was off to Academy to renew my fishing license and get the great old man’s license. That is when things went Twilight Zone.

Not sure how to organize this but let’s start with the basics.  In Texas if you go year to year on your fishing and hunting license you always renew during the August 15th through the 30th for the next year, unless you buy a date to date, which I never do as I renew as I have every year for the last 10 during the 2 week period.

So I head to Academy so happy, I get the whole thing for $32, yahoo, a real break.  So I go to the register and pay the $32 and head to the license table.  She takes my stuff and says no, it will not let me sell you the fishing part.  Huh?  She says it will not let you have that until August 31.  And I ask why, is it because I  am switching to the old man license because when you buy during the period every year it normally lets you renew?  She obviously does not have a clue why no fishing license, but says you can purchase the hunting part now and then come back at the end of the month and pick up the fishing.  My comment – Now why would I buy the hunting part now and then come back and buy the  fishing part later?  Wouldn’t it make more sense to just come back and do it all at once?  She at least got that.  So basically I can not renew now.  OK.

So since I have already been to multiple places this morning I will just stop in TPWD and see what the deal is.  And here is what I found out when I handed my license to the lady at TPWD, this is date to date.  Huh?  When Academy renewed my license last year they made it date to date.  Even though the freakin’ thing was renewed during the correct period last year they made it date to date.  So by my not looking, or paying close attention to what they were doing, the person last year got it wrong.  And to top it off, TPWD said it ended up costing me like $7 more last year when they inexplicably made it date to date.  And to top off todays Academy’s continued good advice, the lady at TPWD said if I had bought the hunting today at Academy like the person suggested, and then come back and bought the fishing  it would have ended up costing me more than the $32!

So here is what I learned today.  Pay attention to what they are doing and review what you purchased.  So in some respects it is my fault, I was probably talking fishing with someone in line.  And second, make no assumption if you are not at the TPWD that the person selling you the license really knows any of the rules.  While it is no big deal to correct other than multiple trips, let the buyer beware.  My lesson, just get it at TPWD.

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I got this comment from Rick on the blog’s birthday, and a  potential cure for SAD.

There is only one cure for S.A.D. that I know of………SALT AIR !!!!!. 10 deep breaths right at sunrise and you will be good to go. Congrats on the success of your blog, I read everything you post. (yes, even the freshwater reports).

I am laughing right now.  Thanks for the congrats, and since I need to be out of the house on Saturday  (But unfortunately since I wrote this I was sick all weekend.)  morning it will be an early morning trip to the coast somewhere.  I know it is a weekend but sometimes a guy has to do what a guy has to do.  And thanks for reading the fresh reports, I know it is tough!

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Hopefully the next time you hear from me it will be holding a nice rainbow beside a beautiful mountain stream.  There are 4 places I hope to fish, one right in front of the cabin.  Since I am not tackled up for fly rodding, it will be 4lb. fluoro and super small baits.  Kind of a White River thing, only on a smaller scale.  To go along with some fishcatchingtravel, while reviewing September last year I realized that is when I caught all those redfish at Grand Isle.  So with that in mind I am headed there around the middle of September for a 3 or 4 days of fishing, a trip there will cure all your fishing ills.  And with the lake sucking and hunting season opening it will be back to the bay on a regular basis.  Hopefully the new Controlled Descent lure will be out and I can put it to the Louisiana test.  All I care about right now  –  Let Fall Begin!  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines