It's not every day you catch a 23 inch striped bass on a trotline, but this one must have a real hankering for liver! Great day Saturday on Lake Palestine. One striper on a crankbait, 12 cat and one big striper on trotlines. We ate well along with some neighbors that nite.
Took a week's vacation in Galveston this summer. HOT! but I didn't let that keep me off the water. Got in 7 days on the water. The day we got there, Janelle and I fished from 10 PM to 6 AM. Didn't catch anything big this trip, but we caught the greatest variety of fish than any trip I've ever made: red drum black drum, ray, some unknowns, sharks and so on.
Hutson made it down over the weekend from C.S. Joel was in Michigan on a Sea Cadet excursion and Mintie was in Denver with a cousin. Here's some of the pics I took on the trip.
This is a nice gafftop catfish I caught in Galveston Bay over spring break. Great two days of fishing followed by 3 days of crappy cold and rain.
It's not everyday the Bassmaster Classic is close enough to visit. The greatest event in bass fishing was held in Shreveport this weekend. I didn't even know the Red River was a fishery, much less a great bass fishery. Here's a link to the Red river waterway commission. They have a lot of boat ramps along the waterway, so maybe I'll make it down there in the next couple of years.
The weigh-in was held in a different location than the sponsors exhibits, so I didn't try to go. Only held 11,000 people, so they turned away lots and lots of people. I've loaded a few pics I took at the expo. Only got out spending $50. Passed on that $500 rod/reel combo this time around. Maybe next time....
Recognize a couple of the people I've posted? How 'bout Hank Parker and Bill Dance? If I was into celebrity autographs, I could've had theirs and a whole lot of other pros. See the wooden boat? That's the original Skeeter when it was built in Shreveport. The guy with it told me he worked on that boat when he was 16 in 1954. It was all marine plywood and fiberglass was only available as an option along the bottom. I think that'd be a fun boat to build!
Janelle and I had a good day fishing on Lake Palestine Saturday and Joel joined us Sunday. Well, stupid comment, any day is a good day fishing! We caught a total of 15 catfish on a couple of trotlines we set out Saturday and took up Sunday. Wrapped the kitties in foil and cooked them on the grill. Took about 15 minutes. DEEElicious!!
Don't know why I never got around to posting these photos. Guess maybe it was while I was having trouble getting online with my blog. Somehow, I didn't get the pictures of the nice specs that Hutson caught. Guess I was too busy admiring them.
I have a good pic of Joel and a fish, and one with Janelle. I'll try to post these at a later date if I can find them. The big boat you see here was at the Galveston yacht basin. They had a bid Chevy pickup to pull it and had a heck of a time getting it out of the water. It was hard to get traction. And with 3 huge outboards on the back, you get an idea of how heavy this hog was.
For Mother's Day, Janelle wanted me to take her jug fishing. We only caught a couple of small cat, too small to bother with. The lines were tangled and bait gone so I know we encountered several cat, just shook the hook. I posted a question about what hooks we should have used to "The Brotherhood of Catfishermen" and got an immediate response: "Forget the hooks! Where did you find a wife that wants to go jug fishing on Mother's Day?"
Here's some pics from that trip:
Joel and I went fishing on Lake Palestine last weekend. Took the boat to the far, far, far north end of the lake. Followed the Neches River all the way up to the Hwy 31 bridge. Didn't think we could get that far. We ended up doing a lot more exploring than fishing. Used the trolling motor going up river since I didn't know what might be on the bottom. I did good paying for a good battery because we must've used it close to 4 hours. Got us upriver and then we used it quite a bit after we got back into the lake. Just to show you what we saw, here's a few pics.
Highway 31
Joel's yellow bass. He caught a 2nd one a little smaller and I caught one even smaller.
We saw 3 Union Pacific trains cross the Neches about 30 minutes apart. Joel took a movie of all 3. Here's the best. It's a 41 Mb file, so be prepared to wait!
This past Saturday and Sunday, I visited the Texas Toyota Bass Classic on Lake Fork. Joel and Mintie went with me on Saturday and we had a great time. I went by myself on Sunday and watched the local favorites Kelly Jordan, David Smith, Lance Vick and David Walker walk away with $250,000 for a 3-day stringer of 228 lbs 0 oz. Here's a link for the final results: http://www.toyotatexasbassclassic.com/folders.asp?action=display&record=1.
Bobby Lane walked away with the big bass prize: a $6000 pair of custom made Luchese boots! Oh, and a $48,000 Toyota pickup, too.
Here's some photos I shot Sunday (my camera broke Saturday).
How about test drive a Toyota Tundra?
Can you see the pickup in the picture?
Had a heck of a time getting this in my pocket!
Another Toyota? Am I detecting a theme here?
How 'bout that Roger Creeger?
Yer' busted!
I like fishing better already!
Quiz: how many gallons of gas will 250 grand buy?
And at last, Robert Earl Keen! I can't wait for work Monday so I can get some rest!
