Get On The Boat

You don't have to own a boat to go boating, but it helps to have friends who do. Friends like J, who works LE consultancy when he isn't on the lake having fun, in his boat. And fair play to him, he's earned it and likes to share the fun, which is exactly what happened this morning.

LE

Saying that, getting up when every sensible creature's fast asleep didn't seem too enjoyable, but it's worth it when you see the sun rising off the water as you set out in search of fish and adventure. A whole new day dawns under the omnipotence of God, and it feels good, scudding across the lake, looking for action.

We found it, too, guided by birds zeroing in on schools of young striper. It's a fierce business, nature; just watch the avian Stukas dive-bomb down on a gang of thrashing, predatory bass. Ferocious and fast, not least for the fisherman; pretty much every cast a fish.

Great result, followed by motoring about in search of larger fish. We'd have found them too, if we'd been fishing live shad. As it is, plastic facsimiles and silver slabs didn't cut it, but still produced a fair few junior striper. Good fun.

Some Old Fool

Then it was time to head back across the inland sea of Lake Whitney and on to the Compound, a morning well spent. Better by far than staring in slack-jawed consternation at some kind of screen.

God bless,

LSP

Republican Healthcare Shambles, Go Fishing

Well done, Republicans. One of the reasons people voted you into power was to repeal Obamacare and you've failed to do that. How many other election promises will you break? Some, all, most? Who knows, and rather than reflect on this unsettling question I went fishing.

It was tranquil as the sun set behind the limestone bluffs overlooking Lake Whitney and I cast off from the solitude of the bank, enjoying the peaceful sound of the line as it played out across the sun-reflecting water.  Very peaceful, unless you're a fierce voracious fish.

Within minutes, an underwater predator plowed into my worm, diving and pulling against the line, a Drum. Next up, a decent little Bass took the bait, thrashing and leaping, big fun. But imagine what those fish would be like if they were large; deadly.

Then the action slowed down, with more fish sneakily eating the bait off the hook than striking. Still, I reeled in a couple of Bluegill and so what if they're small, they put up a fight. And that was that, an uplifting couple of hours in the clean lakeside air of an early Texan spring evening.

What a good result unlike, say, the useless, dismal, failing performance of the Republican Party, who can't live up to one of their most basic election promises. Our corrupt, lying, hypocritical, elitist, smug, mendacious and venal mainstream media will doubtless run and run with this story. But hey, maybe it's all part of the art of the deal.

Fish on,

LSP

Don't be a Loser, Get on The Boat

You're thinking, I know, if only I had a boat I'd catch a lot of fish. On the lake. And I don't blame you, it makes sense. With that in mind I climbed aboard a friend's boat, rod in hand and ready for action.

We zoomed across Lake Whitney to Steele Creek, then trolled upstream just after first light, with mist rising off the water. There weren't any banjos, but there should've been. There was, however, a great chorus of turkeys from along the banks. But not a lot of fish.

In fact, we caught one, a medium size Sand Bass. Undaunted, we fished several coves, channels and creeks, but nothing. Not a bite, and we weren't the only ones, no one seemed to be catching anything on the lake that morning.

The next day, my boat pal's 8 year old Grandson caught 7 Stripers in one of the coves we fished, using exactly the same lure, a silver shad of some sort, that'd been so unsuccessful the day before. There's a moral in that, somewhere.

In other news, I saw a wild turkey strutting through the streets of downtown Whitney this morning. It was a hen.

Fish on,

LSP

Fishing

Don't get me wrong, shooting is great, but fishing is neat too. So I loaded up the truck with some rods and headed off to Lake Whitney.

The Lake's still high and right  out of the gate one of the team caught a Bass with a long tail worm on a Texas rig. Big excitement, which was tempered, a bit, by the young 'un dropping the fish before we could get a picture. It swam away to fight again another day. 

Then one of the boys fell in the lake and had to dry out in the sun while the other caught a fish with his cowboy hat. The hat was strangely waterproof; you can get them from Cavender's for $24. Keeps the sun off and doubles as a net, quite a deal.

Later on a  friendly fisherman gave us a couple of Perch to use as bait and that was fun but didn't result in any strikes. He'd been there since 5.30 am and had only caught Perch, 6 of them.

As midday came and went, and the sun beat down, we headed for the Compound.

Well done, Team, and you never know, maybe next time I'll catch something...

LSP