Oak Creek March

Well, my day certainly didn't go as planned.

Stillwater Bass Club's tournament was last Saturday, but due to circumstances beyond mine or Frank's control, I did not get to go. I got up and started getting ready, but we both decided I should stay home and he headed to the lake without me. I should say, this was not his choice, he wanted to stay with me but I sort of blackmailed him into going.

As the day wore on, he was really glad I didn't go. It was extremely windy and he stayed cold most of the day. And we all know, if he was cold, I would have been miserable.

He did end up with three fish (remember, this is a 3 fish tournament), but fell a bit short. My understanding is there was a pretty good stringer that won, somewhere in the 20 pound range! WOW is all I have to say.

Hopefully, I will be out there with him again on March 27. That is our next TBC tournament. And if things really go well, we may get to fish the Bassin' Bunch Bass Club's Open Bass Tournament the day before. Remember, this tournament benefits Special Olympics! Both tournaments are at O.H. Ivie. Maybe it will rain before then!

We Interupt this Fishing Blog...

For some hunting!!!

September brings bird season and they are thick this year. We got to go back to the Duda for part of the long Labor Day weekend for some fun, family, fellowship, and hunting. It was a blast!

I didn't hunt, just the guys. I am a firm believer that if your going to shoot it you better eat it and I don't eat birds. So I don't hunt. They limited every day and had a great feast on Sunday night.

The Three Amigos

I just love that place and wish we could spend much more time there.

I hope everyone that has been hunting has been doing well.

The "Camo Country Club"

Be safe but have fun!

Now back to our regularly scheduled fishing - State Championship in 14 days! Watch out Del Rio!!!

Praying for Rain or a Cool Front

We have our last tournament for the West region before we fish the classic! We will be fishing O.H. Ivie. This is the last Sunday of July. July means it is hot! Frank has done some pre-fishing the past two weekends with no luck. So maybe we will get a little cool front to lower the temperature so we won't be completely miserable. Rain would be even more welcome!

If anybody has any clue as to what they are biting on or where they are hiding, give us a call! We can use all the help we can get!!

Busbee Math - Am I a Victim?

Welcome to Miller Creek!

We left the house at 3:45 this morning to eighty degrees. I love to see the high at 80 degrees, but eighty degrees at four in the morning is already hot. There were times today the air felt heavy, like I was standing in an oven. The sky told of what the rest of the day would be like, clear with little to no wind. That wind thing is so unusual. We almost always have a 10 MPH breeze, but today it was still, a lot. We did have some wind, and when we did it was actually welcomed, but it seemed during the hotter parts of the day it was still. God sent us several clouds to cover the sun for a bit, which gave us a little relief, but for the most part it was sunny and HOT!

We don't fish this lake very often. It has been over a year since we last fished here. There were some great things to see and some not so great. The area around the lake is mostly farm land so we had company from several cows today. I'm not sure which is funnier, Frank "mooing" at the cows to see their reaction or the cows reaction to Frank "mooing" at them. Both are pretty funny.

There were flowers blooming all around the lake. These pretty purple flowers -

Aren't they pretty? I don't remember seeing these before and I don't know what they are. I found it very odd that they were blooming in July. Wild flowers around here usually bloom in the spring, not the dead, dry heat of summer. There were also a lot of dragon flies. Three different kinds, the normal blue ones we always have, a large one that had a type of tiger stripe to it, and a very small bright orange one. I could have taken time to take pictures, but between texting my friends and taking pictures, Frank gets a little miffed at me!

If you read here, you will see one of the reasons I don't like this lake. SNAKES. I am not a fan. And Miller Creek didn't disappoint today. We say lots. None of the ugly black snakes that we saw last time but snakes none the less and they were there. Ewwww!

To tell the truth, as hot as it was, when we started cutting across the water at around six this morning, I got a little chill. But once the boat stopped that went away fast. We started the morning with some top water action, if you want to call it that. I was the only one to catch a fish, if you call it a fish. Frank couldn't believe what I had done. I actually caught a minnow! Yep, a minnow, foul hooked on my Pop'R! I had to take a picture because I didn't think anyone would believe me and because, well, that's what I do!
So there is the proof! If you or anyone you know has ever caught a smaller fish, I would love to see a picture!

And Frank gets the award for the largest fish of the day. He was throwing a crank bait into a ball of minnows, and when it hit, it hit hard. It felt like he almost fell out of the boat. His rod was bent over like I have never seen it before. I dropped my rig and grabbed the net. Boy were we disappointed when the fish surfaced...

A drum! Needless to say, we were a bit (a lot) disappointed. But he did take the opportunity to play a joke on some friends that were fishing across the lake. They were far enough away that he knew they couldn't see what species of fish it was, but close enough he knew they could hear him. He did a little Mike Icconelli on the front of the boat, a little yelling and dancing, then tossed that big thing right out of the boat! It didn't take them long to make their way over just to check out what was really going on. All in fun, guys, all in fun!!!

We had three fish (2 decent, 1 dink) in the live well when all of this was going on. We had been alternating with Texas rigged worms and lizards, with top water, spinner baits and crank baits. We each had a nice fish on a 6" black lizard with a chartouse (sp) tail. Yeah, the dink was mine, but I didn't feel so bad because I did have that other one in there and we figured it weighed about 2.5.

The day only drug on after that. Hot, no wind, hot, no fish, and did I mention IT WAS HOT! We could handle the hot a lot better if we had been catching fish, but when your not, the day just drags on.

Because of the heat, weigh in was moved up to 2:30, which is not good for us. We tend to start really catching fish around two. Today, I just couldn't make it. About 1:30 the heat really got to me and I started having that sinking, sick feeling of heat exhaustion, so I told Frank I was done. He wanted to take me to the truck but I wanted him to just keep fishing. And true to form, Frank got into some schooling fish and filled up our live well. Seven fish in seven cast. It was great until I couldn't keep up with him in culling. At one point I had to yell at him not to cast again because I had too many fish in the boat and needed help. We culled my little dink and a couple others and ended up with a nice 17.22 bag.

He is really happy in this picture, but the sweat had started running into his eyes!

We ended up in second place which isn't bad. In fact it is great! Tommy and Pam Busbee (our tournament directors) edged us out by less than half a pound (I think, check here to get the exact amount). We have been fishing with the Busbees for a long long time. We have sometimes questioned their mathematical skills and have even come up with the term "Busbee Math" when things might not seem on the up and up. And today was one of those questionable days. They assured us that they had witnesses to the weight of the their fish, but I sure would have liked to have seen the numbers on the scales myself!

Now don't go gettin' all high an' mighty on me! Tommy and Pam know what I say is all in good fun! If I didn't trust them, do you think I would still be fishing with them?

At last count, Frank and I were tied for 7th in the west region and were in 5th place in the panhandle region. We have one tournament left in each region before the Championship so all the points we get sure do help us out! July 26 we will fish O.H.Ivie for our final tournament in west and August 9 we will be fishing Stamford for the panhandle. Wish us luck! We sure would like to be in the top six for both regions!

Twin Buttes Tournament

It was a very hot weekend! Weatherbug kept telling me on Sunday that it was ninety eight degrees, but when I got in the pickup, the thermometer was reading 105. I tend to believe my vehicle!

Registration was at Field and Stream (thank you Cliff) and then most of us headed over to Logan's Roadhouse for a bite to eat and a few had a drink or two (the margaritas are great!). I think a fun time was had by all!

The tournament started at 5:45 AM which meant we had to get up at 4:00 AM! Yuk!!! But we did and we even had time to stop at Whataburger for some breakfast. The weather was nice, a bit cloudy and around seventy five degrees and not much wind. Around sunrise, we had a little rain which was nice, but I think it just rained on me and Frank. There were some people fishing about 100 yards from us and the water around them was as smooth as glass. I felt like the "Born Loser" with a little rain cloud just above my head! While we were enjoying the rain, we also noticed a promise from God, a rainbow, in the western sky. It was not very bright but there none the less. I think the worst part of the day, even worse than the heat, was being attacked by gnats and flying ants. Frank didn't believe me when I told him some of those pesky things were ants until they started biting him. I think he wanted to jump in the lake to get them off of him. Those little critters hurt!!! You should see the welts they left on him. As the day wore on and the heat continued to rise we felt as if we should have stayed home. We lost two fish a piece on buzz baits with trailer hooks and thought the day was going to be just like his pre-fishing day - no fish! The mood in the boat was not a very pleasant one, but that too changed. Most of the morning looked like this - just blue skies and the sun shinning bright! It was hot by 10 AM! We both prayed for a little relief; rain, wind, whatever He could do for us to make it through that heat. And He did - He sent some of the most beautiful clouds I have ever seen. It was still hot, but every once in a while there was a break with a cloud over the sun. It was indeed a blessing.

Bored with what we were doing, Frank decided we should change tactics. We started throwing a Hag's Tornado blue fleck, Texas rigged - IT WORKED! About 11:00 we caught fish, both of us at the same time. By the end of the day we had four fish in the live well, three pretty nice and one little dink. We had to measure him again just before weigh in to make sure he still crossed that 14" line. We had a 9.00 bag and were just thrilled. We didn't win, but after Frank's discouraging pre-fish last week, we would have been happy just to have that little dink! (No pictures - we were trying to get them back in the water as quick as possible to reduce stress on them)

We did see another unusual site. We had seen dirt devils all around. Late in the afternoon, one decided to join us in the water. My picture is not very good but you can see how the water was lifting up inside the funnel. It was really pretty neat!

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!

HOT, HOT, HOT

I am back and alive. After a month of illness, throwing my back out the Monday before vacation then being on vacation, I am up, moving, and fishing. Well I am not back to 100% but I am getting there. Sunday was very hot and extremely windy. The wind did not help my back any but here are pics from our tournament on Father's day.

Does this picture look familiar?
SALT CEDARS! No we didn't fish OH Ivie again, this is Hubbard Lake. What we were really fishing was grass, lots of grass, all around these salt cedars. We threw spinner baits, rattle traps, frogs, and worms. But we just couldn't get any decent fish to take the bait. We had two fish that weighed just over three pounds, definitely nothing to brag about.

Because my back is still not back to normal, this is what I saw most of the day.

You don't recognized this? It is looking through the top of my hat that I kept over my face while I laid in the back of the boat with my feet up in my chair. It was the only way I could get any relief.

Without the hat, this is what we saw.
Isn't that a beautiful blue sky? That really is the sky, clear and sunny all day. There were no clouds at all. Oops,
there's one,

and a few more. These were late in the day and obviously gave no break from the sun and heat.

So not a great day on the lake, but, as usual, we had fun!

Yes, I Know I'm Late!

I'm am sorry I do not have my fishing report up yet. As many of you that fish with me know, I have been sick. As soon as I am able to sit at the computer for more than two minutes without having a sinking spell, I will get it posted and pictures too. I promise!

Waiting on Pictures

We went back to Lake Cisco this past weekend but the pictures I took are saved on my camera and not a memory stick. I don't have the proper cable to get the pictures from my camera to the computer. So as soon as I can I will get these pictures posted and stories from our escapades. The fish were not biting as good as they were a couple of weeks ago but we still had a great time. My Uncle Ryan was there and it was wonderful getting to visit with him. I had not seen him in about 3 years. The visiting was great even if the fishing was not. And isn't that what it is all about anyway?

Still Another Week Til Next Tournament!!!!!

Ok, so we still have another week until our next tournament. So what do we do to pass the time? Take the kids fishing of course! We went to my dad's lake cabin at Cisco and had a very enjoyable afternoon. This was Mattie May's very first fishing trip ever. She is still a little young to get the whole sit and wait part, but she did try. She even helped reel in a crappie. Enjoy the pictures. For a mid-April day, it was a bit cool and it was very windy. But we still had a great time and are looking forward to many more days at the lake with the girls.

Katie showing Mattie May how to fish.

Chris and Nikki joined us and had a good time.

Oh! They caught one! Mattie May tried real hard to reel it in.

We will start with crappie and move up the chain.

Mattie May's First Fish! (with Mommie's help)

Here is a video of the first few minutes of our day. You can hear how windy it was and see for that matter. Enjoy!