I may Loose my Spot on the Boat!

Frank went fishing this weekend to a two day tournament in San Angelo. It was a three fish stringer per day tournament.

Saturday night, Frank was in forth place. He had fished Twin Buttes most of the day, but when the wind picked up he moved over to Lake Nasworthy. He didn't have a single hit! So Sunday he fished all day at Twin Buttes and fought the wind. He felt that was better than not catching any fish!

He had a very decent stringer and won 2ND!! Yeah Frank!

Our friend Craig won first. He had a 9+ pounder on Saturday, so Frank was really surprised they were so close. Craig's total was 15.61; Frank's was 15.25!! So even though I have no pictures, I have two really nice checks and know he had good fish!

Everyone we talk to looks at me and says "Frank should go without you more often!" Yeah, he probably should, but I hope he doesn't!!!

I Saw GOD Today!

We have only been gone for two days but it seems like forever. I get back to check my email and, wow, my box is full. I dread seeing my box at work seeing as how I was off Friday and will be off tomorrow too. Oh, as Scarlett says "I will worry about that tomorrow".

We had a good time, most of it spent just the two of us together. We had no travel buddies because we left so late Friday evening and none on the return trip because, well, we left after everyone else! We enjoyed the banquet and awards with lots of old friends and just as many new ones on Friday, but enjoyed a relaxing dinner at Chili's Saturday night, just the two of us. Then a quick trip to Academy and Walmart, we got to bed as early as we could. Four o'clock comes really early on Saturdays! We also ran into a long time friend in Walmart. Scott, we could have visited all night! It was great to see you and I will be sending you an email!



The fishing was not good. We each had one keeper on Saturday and Frank caught his first small mouth bass. It only weighed about 2.5 but it fought like a 10 pounder! We had a total of 4.24 on Saturday.

Sunday, the fishing was not much better. Boat numbers were called at 7:00 AM, and we got to our spot at 7:09 AM. By 7:15 we had two in the box! We thought we were at least going to have a limit, but boy were we wrong. That was it! No more, nada, zilch the rest of the day. We had 3.78 (I think, to lazy to go get my weigh slips!) total for Sunday.
You can see how happy Frank is in this picture. It was a long hot day, and we had a long drive ahead of us. 8.02 for the weekend. It took 22+ to win the tournament and you can read all the results here. It may take Pam til tomorrow night to get everything posted, but she will get it done so keep checking back if it isn't posted.



So now your saying to yourself "So what does this have to do with the title?" Lots!



Frank and I are so grateful for everything we have. As I have told you before, we know it is ours through God. He is so good to us. So look at the following pictures and tell me if you see Him. (Don;t forget, you can click on each image to enlarge it!)








He is there! Did you see Him? If not go back and look one more time. He is there, I promise!





We are firm believers in Christ, we believe it is He that created all in the universe. George Strait is my all time favorite singer and his song "I saw God Today" will be my favorite forever. We see God in every sunrise, sunset, animal and bird. He is there keeping us safe as we travel and as we face the elements as we fish. Amazing landscapes! Fabulous trees growing in crevices in rocks on cliffs. And then we come home to the most precious gifts of all... Our wonderful Father in Heaven,

Thank you for everything you have given us, our girls and each other. Please keep growing in our hearts as you continue to shower us with Your grace.

Time is Running Out

If you look at my counter, you will see that it is just hours away from our TBC Championship. We will not make it in time for all the festivities in the morning, but hopefully we will be there in time for dinner and get our information for start times on Saturday and Sunday mornings and weigh in times also.

I will try to do a couple of post while we are there, but if not, I will bring you up to date on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone!

Our First Trip to Lake Belton

Like I stated in an earlier blog, we have never been to Lake Belton. We have driven over it several times, but never fished it, skied it, nothing. But not anymore! If you don't know where Lake Belton is, here is a map to help you out. It is on I-35 about half way between Waco and Austin. Very pretty lake. It reminded me of Possum Kingdom, clear water, deep cliffs, lots to see.

We started our trip on Friday. Here is Frank driving.
He looks happy for me to be taking his picture, huh. This will not be the last time in this post that you see this expression on his face. We didn't leave until after work, so it was late when we got there. We checked in to the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, and did some sight seeing in the dark. Have you ever done that, looked around a new place after the sun goes down? I have decided doing this is about as exciting as looking at Christmas lights during the day. You just don't get the same effects!

Saturday morning, we slept in a bit, woke up about 6, then we had breakfast and headed to the lake. This is as we were pulling away from the ramp.

Nice and smooth. One of those great mornings.

This is the ramp. See our truck?
Does this help? The yellow circle is our truck. The pink circle? That is the "toilet". I use that term loosely. A whole in the ground with seats and four walls and two stalls. Not the best, but when you gotta go, you gotta go!!!
Just some of the shore line. Some of God's handy work.

From what we could tell, the lake looks low. This picture shows what we think is the water line. This is what it would look like around our home lakes. I am sure if this is not the case, I will have some nice person leave me a comment correcting me.
I think this is an Egret. Really pretty bird. It posed for me then took off.
And I think this is a Heron. It stuck around a little longer than the Egret, but not much.
This is not what any fisher person wants to spend their time doing.

(Note, there is that face again)

Just more of the cliffs.

This is my OH MY moment!

Have you tried these things. They are fantastic!

Just remember to put them in the cooler if you will be outside in the heat!

This was about the time of day I got really bored and my wrist was killing me. (I have got to get to the doctor this week to check it out)
One of my favorite past times, looking at clouds. This is another thing that drives Frank crazy, me finding shapes in the clouds.
See this man? He is an old man, not happy or sad.
OK, if you don't see it, I have used red to outline it.
Did that help? I hope so.

See the elephant?

Again, I have used red to outline him.

OK, one more.
See the elf face?
Here he is.
I know, most of you can see these shapes. These outlines are for the Franks out there that don't see the shapes.

I love trees with character. This is one of those trees. It is dead, but don't you know at one time is was beautiful. Just imagine it during fall.
This was a surprise to us. A waterfall.
This is at the bottom of a water processing plant. Very pretty and surprising.

This is at the damn. Someone put in a lot of time here.

Oh, here is the face again. He was not happy having to take me over here to take this picture.
This was up in one of the coves. The best we could tell, this is a permanent dock, it is just out in the lake, not attached to the shore like most docks. They sure were having a lot of fun. We found it funny that being in between Baylor and UT that they had...
this flag flying.
Those Aggies are everywhere!!

Sunday morning brought some more wildlife. This roadrunner was running up and down the shore.
And when I took down my camera, I saw this!

OH! You know how I hate snakes and this one was about two feet from the boat. I think the roadrunner was looking for him too.

This little turtle was all alone sunning himself. He was tiny. I don't think I have ever seen one this little alone.

We did quite a bit of moving around the lake. At one point, we were in a flock of buzzards! Here are three of them.
Yes there are three, see the arrow.
They are not the prettiest birds, but the serve a great purpose. But on this day, I think we were right in their flight path. They would fly so close to our heads, we could feel the wind off their wings as they took off.
We ended our trip by going through Killeen to find the airport where I will have to pick Frank up before our tournament. Then had to turn around and go back when we realized I had left my purse at Jack In The Box! I was so mad! It took an hour to take care of that.

Then just as we pulled into Tuscola, Frank got a call that he had to go to work. The OT is always nice, I just wish he would have had some time to rest. Maybe next time he will let me do some of the driving.

OH, I'm sorry. Did you come hear wanting to read a fishing report? Well not much to say. We caught nothing on Saturday and Frank caught four fish on Sunday and they were just barely 14". So, any of you nice people that fish this lake often, if you have any suggestions, we sure would appreciate it. We will return the favor when you come fish some of our home lakes!

WE'RE GOING FISHING

Have you missed me? Did you wonder where I have been?

Well, not fishing! We were supposed to go a couple of weeks ago and had to cancel due to circumstances beyond our control. But that was OK, we were needed here so here is where we stayed.

We are going to go prefish at Lake Belton. Neither of us has ever been there. Oh, we have both been to Temple and Killeen, and we have probably driven by or over the lake, but we have never fished it. We usually like to keep our prefishing to one or two weeks before our actual tournament, but since this is a three day weekend and Frank will be in Atlanta the week before and we will have our Stillwater tournament next week, this was the only weekend we could go. So go we will.

Of course I will have my camera and I will try to post some pictures while we are there, but no promises. Frank gets mad at me when I go down to the public computers and play. But I do promise to post some pictures and hopefully a story or two next week.

Only 28 days to the TBC Championship Tournament!

The Worst Day Fishing...

I know you, if you are a fisherperson you have heard the saying "The worst day fishing is better than a good day working."

We are here to tell you, that is not true.

Saturday, Frank fished a tournament at Lake Stamford with Warren (it was a team tournament). Other than the regular fishing stories, "you should have seen the one that got away" told by both men, there was the broken favorite flipping rod, the loosing the rod and reel while running across the lake, and the oh so famous trolling battery that pooted out.

I still haven't been told the whole story on how the rod was broken but he did tell me the "Rod Saver" will have to be replaced. It didn't hold up going across the rough lake hence the lost combo. But when the wind picked up and the trolling motor wouldn't keep up with it, he checked and he had lost a battery. So Warren kept fishing while Frank made a run into the Wal-Marts in Stamford to purchase a new battery.

Needless to say, the tournament was won by someone other than these two, but they made it home safe! And Frank said he would have rather been working, at least that was guaranteed money!

Trip Canceled

Well, we had discussed with friends when we would go pre-fish Lake Belton. A weekend was agreed upon and Pam called to make the reservations for all of us.

It seems there is a large convention in Temple on that same weekend and there are no rooms available at any of the hotels. The CSR at the hotel said Temple was expecting 10,000 people for this "convention"! My goodness, if there are that many people, it looks like they would go to a larger metropolitan place that could accommodate them better.

Oh well, we will try to figure out a different weekend to go on. I will be able to talk about fishing then!

(I did not say the group that is having the "convention" on purpose. I have already been accused of being non-politically correct once today.)

August Stilwater Tourny

Today was our August tournament on Hubbard Creek Lake in Breckenridge and I don't have much to report. Frank and I decided after a bit of discussion that I should pass on this one. The weather forcast was hot, hot, hot, and not much wind. I know, we normally hate for the wind to blow, but when it is August and hot in west Texas, you need the wind to cool off.

Frank did fish and weighed in a 7+ pound stringer. I can 't even tell you his exact weight, but I know it was not enough to win anything.

I, on the other hand, spent my day with our daughter and granddaughter. It was the annual Zoo Day at the Abilene Zoo and we thought we were getting there in plenty of time to beat the heat and the crowd. We handled the heat much better than I did the crowd, so we only stayed about 2 hours. It was a great 2 hours watching them enjoy the zoo, but we came home early to eat lunch and get a nap.

Hopefully, it won't be quite so hot in September and I will join him again on the lake and will have a better report. Until then, hope you catch a big 'un!

Fishing in July

Baby, IT'S HOT OUTSIDE!!!

This was the reading on our mirror Saturday afternoon on our way to Lake O.H. Ivie. That is crazy! Luckily we were in our nice air conditioned truck!
I thought I saw some goats sweating as we passed them on the road. No wonder!

Gas prices are about to cut into our fishing, as I am sure they are doing the same to you. Four dollars a gallon! We're going to have to start winning some tournaments to be able to pay for the gas. Do you remember when this price was the cost of a gallon of gas?
Now it will only buy you a soda to get you on your way down the road!
We got there in plenty of time to get registered, and have a hamburger at Concho Park Marina before Frank had to get some work done on the boat. Last week he had some problems with the tachometer, but one phone call to our friend Mike, and he knew what he needed to do get to it working. He couldn't do it at home because he needed the motor running. So I backed him down the ramp and he got it done.
We always feel like we are the only ones with boat trouble, but this picture shows, if your going to own a boat, your going to have trouble.
Because of the hot weather (remember photo #1) our tournament started at 5:00 AM! Crazy I know but much cooler. I took a short video so you can see and hear the sites and sounds of the lake at five in the morning.

OK, so maybe just the sounds of five in the morning. You see in that video exactly what we saw, darkness. It is that dark that early.

We only had one fish. Frank caught it and it weighed 1.54 (I think). We had one of the few one fish stringers, but we did not have the smallest weight. Check out Tommy and Pam Busbee, the founders and West directors of TBC...

Some stringer! The funny thing, its total weight was less than our one fish. So always look for that silver lining.

The weather was hot, but not much wind. That is very odd for a mid July day. It allowed us some time to play after the tournament. To really appreciate the video below, turn your A/C off for a couple of hours, then place an industrial fan where it will blow the hot air directly into your face.

Wasn't that a nice ride? Mattie May loves this video. She told her mommy "I ride de boat again, Mommie" and she pushes the play button for another ride. Why can't the wind be like this when we take her to the lake?

Lake Ivie is one of our favorite lakes, even though it was not very nice to us this weekend. It is outside of Ballinger, a great Texas small town. One of the sites to see in Ballinger is "The Cross". It is great to see at any time of the day and has a wonderful story behind it. If you are ever out this way, definitely stop and see it.
Our monthly tournaments for TBC are done for the the year. We now start planning for our championship that will be held on Lake Belton in September. Be sure to go to the TBC web site for more information on that.