TBC West Lake Ft Phantom - 06-19-11

This is a very deceiving picture!

Oh! It is a beautiful sunrise,
the temperature was nice,
and at this point the wind wasn't too bad.

And it was Father's day.
What a great way to spend it.

With my hubby,
fishing.

My dad first took me fishing,
years ago,
to a catfish farm.
What better place to start a child fishing!
A place where you're guaranteed to catch fish.
I loved it.
His pocketbook did not!
And then there was the crappie fishing!
He is the one that instilled the love of fishing in me!
Thank you Poppa!

But these pictures tell the true story of the day.

Look at those waves!
And that towel on his seat!
(and yes! Ft Phantom IS REALLY that color!)

So you think I just captured it just right?
Here's another shot,

OK. So that one doesn't look so bad either.

Let me show you a little film I took...

W - I - N - D - Y!!!

That is what today was. It was terrible!
It was one of those days when being air born on your trip across the
lake was the norm.
The days I hate.

We started out at some docks across from the spill way
with no success,
so it was time to move over to our favorite stick ups.
Thank goodness for our new trolling motor!
It had to work hard to keep us there.

Frank boated an under
(Ft Phantom has a 16" minimum on Large mouth)
and then broke off what we are pretty sure was a decent fish.

Then we moved back over to the docks.
He started catching lots of unders and
I actually boated one too,
but I soon succumbed to the heat and wind
and told Frank I was just going to be his netter the rest of the day.

He caught two nice keepers in this area and we stayed here the rest of the day.
He did break off again on a fish that he said he couldn't turn his head.
Fishing around the docks has it's drawbacks.
He was fishing under some stairs when he had the hit
and the fish swam under them and it cut his line.
So we went to weigh in with just two fish,
but that was better than some others!

Mattie May got to meet us at the ramp

so she helped Grumpy with weigh in!

Making sure they weigh them right!

We ended up with 5.54 and about 4Th place...

and that put us (unofficially) in fifth place for the year!
YAY US!!
Really yay Frank!
He does the majority of the work!

Our Championship tournament is
September 24 & 25
at
Lake Limestone

And our top six tournament will be
October 29Th
at

SAM RAYBURN!!!

We are very excited!
We haven't fished Big Sam in years
and are very ready to go back!

Until next time,
God Bless!

Where Have I Been?

Wow, from the looks of this poor little fishing blog, it seems I haven't been fishing. But I have, that's just it, fishing, not catching!

Instead of making excuses and trying to back track all we have done in the past months since I have posted on this blog, I'm just going to start fresh and with what we did yesterday.

We had our fourth tournament for the year with TBC at Twin Buttes in San Angelo. We started at 6AM to finish by 2PM, trying to beat some of the heat. Even though Frank and I just came back from our week long vacation with Mattie May down on the Gulf, we were ready to head out. It was not the most productive day we have had on the water, but fun none the less.

We started the morning throwing buzz baits, Frank lost two fish, I caught one that was one inch short! We moved back to the area we like out in front of the ramp and started with drop-shot. This has not been one of my favorites because of the spin cast reels. But my sweetie Frank bought me a new rod and reel with a reel I can crank with my right hand. This makes all the difference in the world.

Not long after Frank's second cast I felt him set the hook. When I looked at him, I didn't even have to ask if he needed the net. If that rod had bent any further, it would have broken! Great fish! 7.07 lbs! Not a hog, but the best he/we have had in a while.


We never could come across any more fish but we were feeling pretty good about big fish until the Wallace's came to weigh in. He had a 7.16 and knocked Frank out. Oh well!

This Saturday we will be fishing TBC Northwest at Lake Ft. Phantom right here at home. So not only do I get to sleep in my own bed, I don't have to get up quite so early! Wish us luck. We had some really good rain while we were gone last week and they have been scalping water off the Brazos, so the lake is really full! Hope you come out and join us.

Have a great week and Go Fish!

Lake Ft. Phantom

Yes, you read that correctly, we fished a tournament at Lake Ft. Phantom. TBC Panhandle Region. I don't remember ever being on this lake, but Mom says I have years ago. I sure don't remember that. And we know Frank hadn't been on it in at least twelve years. And it is only about 20 minutes from our house! There is just something about that lake.

We didn't pre-fish, we just headed out and fished a few places Frank remembered fishing all those years ago and it was a pretty good day. We weighed four fish that went twelve something (I can never remember), and we caught fish all day. We had bass, catfish, crappie, hybrids, and perch! Quite a variety!

The weather was not great, windy and cloudy all day. The water was muddy of course. That is all it ever is, red muddy water.

We felt like it was a pretty good day for the conditions and not having been on the lake in so long. Maybe we will take time to fish it more often - maybe!