FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

“SAVE OUR WATERS”

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The Wade Right Fishing Belt

Brought to you by

The Best Wading System on the  Planet.

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Jury Duty

I got up this morning, cleaned up my act, I even put on a suit coat in deference to the Court, I am still an attorney you know.  On arrival at the courthouse there were potential jurors piling in.  After clearing the checkpoint, security is tighter in the courthouse than at the airport, they directed us to an upstairs courtroom.  We filled up  courtroom the and the waiting began.

Turned out there was 3 trials scheduled and they had called 500 potential jurors. Knowing how long this would take I had my book and settled in.  Last time I was called of course I was not chosen.  Must have been when they asked if anybody ever had trouble with a prosecutor.  My answer, always.  So while I figured my chances of getting on the jury were nil, I still had to go through it like everyone else.

Then they read off a list of names and told us to go into the hall and the clerk would tell us where to go.  And she did – Go Home!  One trial settled, one was dismissed, so they only needed one jury and I was free to go.  And of course I did, right to the lake and was on the water at 11:00!

When the wind came up they smoked the swim jig.

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The new Knockin’ Tail Lures will come in 6 colors and they look great.   So click on the link and take a look.  Heck, pre-order some as it is going to be first come first served. 

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The water level is still stable, not quite as clear, and the temp was 64 over most of the lake.  I headed up to hit a big spawning cove where I have been catching them.  A couple jumped on the swim jig, but they had backed out a little farther in the cove.  Both came on a secondary point, a classic pre-spawn location as they get ready to get after it.

The new pearl Knockin’ Tail puts a nice white in the boat.  That is a 5″ stick worm all the way down that crappie’s throat.

There were several folks up lake fishing, so when I left the cove I trolled up seeing if the white bass fishing had improved.  Not really, though 8 jumped on trolling, 4 bass and 4 whites.  The biggest came on the new Knockin’ Tail pearl.  (I have now caught bass, white bass, crappie, trout, tilapia, and redfish on them.  Not only do they catch fish, they last, which is a real benefit.)  After a trolling pass or two I hit a small cove, the water temp was 65, and caught the crappie above pitching the stick worm to cover.  So since I had the Knockin’ Tail tied on I tossed it in there, one thumped it, I set the hook and tossed it completely over the boat!  Now the Knockin’ Tail is a little large for crappie, but that isn’t the point, it catches fish.  And where those crappie were if you are looking for a fish fry look shallow trashy cover, they are moving up.

A spinnerbait bass.  The bite was on for a couple of hours in the wind.  Spring fishing is coming!

The wind came up some, and in my insane pursuit to catch them on spinnerbait I headed back down lake around 3:00 to fish some windy banks.  And just like it should be, they were up.  The bluegill swim jig did most of the damage and before I quit at 5:00 it put 8 in the boat on the jig and broke one off.  (I hate it when that happens.)  I threw the spinnerbait off and on and finally had some success.  It was 4 for 7 or 8 bites.  At least they were chasing, a great sign of things to come, and the ones that did hook up smoked it.

Late afternoon the sky cleared and the water temp had risen to 67.  Buzzing the all white spinnerbait was best for it, while a slow roll with the swim jig was getting bit regularly.  I will take a dozen in the last 2 hours any day.  Before it was all over 10 on swim jig, 4 on spinnerbait, 8 trolling, and 2 pitching.  Not bad for a short day I thought was going to be a complete waste.

So the fish are biting and it should only get better.  One nice thing about this time of year is you can generally fish for what you like, how you want.  After our slow year last year this year is starting off with a bang.  And the big fish should start turning up a little more regularly.  So if you like the lake, time to fish.

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“Our Water?”

According to the local paper it has been discovered that Union Carbide in Seadrift has been allowing “plastic pellets and other solids” to leak into the barge canal.  (“Other Solids?  Not sure what that is, but try dumping that on their yard and see how they like it.)  This is the second plant to be found doing that lately to our bay.  There is a lot of talk about getting to a zero discharge policy but part of the problem is the folks we pay at the state are slower than molasses.  This reason, that excuse, wtf?  Get it done.  The rule should be ZERO discharge into OUR water of anything, by anybody, anywhere.  It is not that hard and should be done post haste.  What do we pay them for if they are not acting quickly and decisively?  And along with that a fine big enough to hurt, and a demand that every last thing is cleaned up.  Of course we need the jobs, but this is not rocket science.  They can surely find a way to manufacture safely.  There is no reason for anyone to dump anything into our water.  End of story.

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And one last comment I forgot last post – Austin traffic.  We have driven at night on the opposite side of the road during rush hour in Cape Town South Africa.  In San Jose Puerto Rico it was exciting when during rush hour terrorists blew up the main power line and there were no traffic lights.  Or Greece, we drove on roads that were a thousand years old and nothing more than tracks through the mountains not as wide as my driveway.  In fact, on the only highway going across Costa Rica there was a fatality and it took 5 hours to go around.  We have had some driving adventures.  But Austin is a whole other animal.  Heading home on a Saturday afternoon it was bumper to bumper crawling for 25 miles.  People doing crazy shit, being very aggressive, it was bad.  I know it is a great town but the traffic gets worse and worse and I feel for the folks who live there.

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It is almost daylight as I finish this.  It is raining a little but the forecast is for clearing, and with that I am back to the lake.  Since I did not have my crappie stuff with me yesterday I will add that to the boat and do a little exploring.  As shallow as those were yesterday they should be fairly easy to catch if you find the right place.

And Michael, the designer of the Knockin’ Tail, dropped me a note after he put the hurt on some trout last weekend at Corpus.  He reports the same thing I am finding, it is one tough bait that lasts.  In fact, thinking about it I had not had one fail in the tough department.  As I glue them all on what few I have lost has been the only way they fail.  One pumpkin color I have used for a while is chewed up and still swimming fine.  He hopes to have the mold to the manufacturer in a couple of weeks with baits in hand hopefully by the Houston Fishing Show.  It is going to be a hit.

We are headed to the Biloxi area for a couple of days, then home in time for the Super Bowl.  The Boss loves the commercials and this year scheduled off way in advance so we can watch the game.  I will get today’s report up before we hit the road, hope it is a good one.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines