Plans for memorial day

Memorial day is next weekend.  After talking about it my wife and I decided to help a friend move saturday, then spend the rest of the weekend relaxing.

Instead of launching the boat at bevil port, we might launch at Martin Dies park, walnut run side.  I would like to throw out some noodles and do some bass fishing while on Dam B.

Summer is here

The weather is starting to warm up, trees have finished blooming, it feels good getting outside and doing something,

A couple of weeks ago my daughter and I made up some noodles for catfishing.  I will probably make up some more in the next couple of weeks.

Walmart only has the pool noodles in for a few months.  So I have to buy the noodles while they are in stock.

Summer heat is starting to break

Couple of cold fronts have passed through, and the summer heat is finally starting to break. It wont be long and it will be camping, fishing and hunting time again. Every summer the Texas heat gets so bad that I can not hardly do anything outside without burning up.

Catching bowfin on juglines

While on a recent fishing trip, I had an unexpected surprise, bowfins seem to like vienna sausage.

Bowfin, also known as Grindle, Grinnel, Mud Fish and Cypress bass are considered a trash fish by a lot of people. There is something about the meat so that it can not be frozen. If the meat is frozen, it crumbles.

I threw some juglines out in a slough that was maybe 8 feet deep. Came back an hour later only to find 2 bowfins on 2 different jugs.

Keep your fingers away from the mouth of the bowfin, they have teeth. Bowfins are one of the few freshwater fish with teeth.

The lines on the jugs were anywhere from 2 - 8 feet deep.

I was using Circle hooks instead of regular J hooks. The circle hook causes the hook not to get hung in the stomach of the fish. The hook is swallowed, comes back out, then gets caught in the mouth of the fish.

Being out on the river

There is no way to describe being out on the river, the sound of the boat motor, the water rushing under the hull of the boat.

To drive on a road is to go where man said you should go.

To be on the water is to go where GOD and nature said you should go.

Water never has pot holes, but it does have waves, wind and rain.

Like riding a motorcycle, there is just something about the wind in your face. But in this case, you are on the water.

Being on the river, and going into sloughs is like going back in time. When summer rolls around and the gators come out, its like back in time 10,000 years. I often wonder what people who lived thousands of years ago lived their lives. How did they fish, what did they think of gators and snakes.

Fishing with noodles

Over the course of the past few months I have been working on juglines, also called "noodles".

I started off with some noodle material you can pick up at the local china mart. Cut a piece of 3/4 inch pcv pipe about 1.75 inches longer then the noodle, glue a cap on one end of the noodle, drill a 1/4 - 5/16 hole in the other end.




Here is the end result. This video was filmed while on a 3 day camping trip in December 2011.