Sunday, May 22, 2016

Holy Trinity Fishing




It's the Feast of the Holy Trinity today, so I decided to celebrate by fishing Lake Whitney's spillway after the second Mass. After clambering down the steep and treacherous rip rap, I set up on the shore of the fast moving Brazos and cast off with a striper lure. It seemed to be getting bites, very encouraging, and then it got snagged. Well done, striper lure, you caught a rock.




In the meanwhile, Gar, some of them large, were cruising the bank like submarines. Maybe the Gar will go for a crankbait shad, I thought decisively, and sure enough they did; before long it was ambushed by one of the prehistoric creatures. 




Great excitement! Get that fish! But don't rush, let the Gar take the bait and run with it, don't go for a premature hookset and lose it all, that's the method. But in this case, the ferocious looking monster, and it was, lifted the lure up out of the water, fixed me with its eye, shook the fakey little plastic shad about and then spat it out. You could almost hear the spit, I think I did hear it. Take that, LSP, spat the Gar.

Hunh. Back to the tackle box for another solution. Seeing as fishing is all about science, I relied on intuition and picked out a cheap silver spoon, the kind you buy at Walmart for $2.00. Throw that in the water and see what happens.




A small Hybrid Striper was what happened, who hit the spoon about 30 yards off the bank and fought all the way in. Fierce little fella. If it's not broken, don't fix it, says Fishing Wisdom, and I repeated the silver spoon trick, casting out to midstream, letting the current take it across the channel towards the bank and then reeling it in. The idea being to get opportunistic hits midstream and pick up fish waiting in ambush out of the current. Science.




7 or 8 Hybrids/Sandies and one baby Widemouth later I called it a day and clambered back up the treacherous rip rap to the rig. Don't fall off the rocks and break your neck, fool, I thought grimly to myself, rods in hand. Several carabiners, pitons and traverses later I was back at the truck, unscathed. Not only did I get some neat after Mass fishing in, but also a well-needed rock climbing refresher. Two birds, one stone, as it were. And here's the thing.




The fish weren't large but they were big fun, and that's what it's all about.

Fish On,

LSP

8 comments:

LL said...

Your stalwart determination (possibly added by the second mass) paid off!!! At least you know where to go to catch them now.

Brig said...

You need to put in for a mission...
a mission to fish all of Texas, Yay!

LSP said...

Right on, LL. Persevere!! But seriously, what a good day at the water. Mass #2 didn't hurt, I think.

LSP said...

Very good idea, B!

LindaG said...

Any day fishing is a good day. Catching is the icing on the cake. ^_^
Have a blessed week!

Euripides said...

So I finally get a bit of time off from school just in time to see LSP actually catching fish. I'm jealous.

LSP said...

Thanks, LindaG -- about time I started catching... God bless.

LSP said...

Get out there and fish, Euripides! Saying that, it's not always easy to find the time and place to do it. Still, what good enjoyment, especially when you (me), ahem, catch something. Yesterday was fun fishing.