My Personal Best

I have been fishing all my life. My dad spoiled me when I was little by taking me to a catfish farm. I was guaranteed to catch a fish and I usually caught more than my dad wanted me to. And I was hooked.

When Frank started tournament fishing, I didn't go. I had a baby to raise and really didn't want to go spend all that time in the sun. It was either too hot or too cold. I just didn't want to go.

Frank finally talked me into joining CAST. I really didn't want to. He promised me that if I didn't want to fish, I could read, sleep, eat, whatever I wanted. He also promised no yelling on the boat. He had problems at times keeping that promise, but he did it. I didn't fish much at first, but the more I went the more I would fish.

After fishing with him for about five years I finally caught a fish over five pounds. As exciting as that was, it still wasn't fun. I thought I was hung up while learning to fish a Carolina rig and Frank had to help me reel her in.

That was about tn years ago. I had decided that I would never catch a fish that weighed more than three pounds. Not only did I have trouble reeling in anything bigger, I really have trouble setting the hook.

This past Saturday, we fished our last tournament of the year with TBC NW. Up at 3:30, we headed to Miller Creek. We love that little lake. It is not very big, but it is a nice lake. Frank did real well last week when he pre-fished. He caught about 18 pounds of fish with the largest being over nine pounds. We were ready to do some fishing.

Things didn't start out to great. Around 7:30 I lost a pretty good fish. Again, I didn't set the hook. It didn't even penetrate the fluke I was fishing with (although, I still blame Frank for not getting her in the net! LOL). Another big fish lost because I can't set a hook.

Later in the morning, Frank set the hook and reeled in a really nice four pounder. Things were looking up. About three cast later, I felt the tug and decided this one was not getting away. I set the hook hard enough that Frank thought I jerked her lips off!

I could tell it had some weight to her, but didn't realize how big until we got her in the boat. 7.28! MY PERSONAL BEST! I was so excited, but I really think Frank was more excited than I was.

She wasn't huge, but I proved to myself that I could catch something bigger than a three and get it in to the boat.

I am so ready to go again just to see if I can do it again!

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!

Miller's Creek 06.28.08

Stillwater's tournament was yesterday, Saturday June 28. I had never been there before. We had a pretty good day and lots of fun.

The tournament started at 6AM, and the lake is about 2 hours away, so the alarm went off at 3:15AM! Sorry, I thought there was only one 3o'clock and that it was only in the afternoon! Frank was nice and let me sleep on the way.

We were greeted at the lake by swarms of mosquito's. I must say I put mosquitoes right there with gnats - Why God, why? I am sure there is a reason, just like everything else, I just don't know what it is!

It really was a nice morning, not much wind and a great ride on the water. This is where we started -

Yeah I know, it was still kind of dark! But there are birds in those trees, their white. This is where we spent most of our day. We both caught fish here and it was out of the wind (the weather men still can't predict wind -it blew!).

Our friend's Craig and Mae fished in this area too. This is Craig -

Oh, I'm sure, he is telling some fishing story. He and Mae were both fishing out of tubes! They have a perfectly good boat, and they fish out of tubes! They are CRAZY!!!!! I know, lots of people fish out of tubes. This is why I don't fish from a tube...

Yes, that is a huge snake! Right on a branch hanging in the lake. And this picture...

Is of the same branch about two seconds later! That huge snake went right into the water. That is why I don't fish from a tube! I don't like snakes at all! I like them less than I do gnats or mosquito's!

We spend a lot of time outside, on the lake. We love to fish. And I take a lot of pictures, usually of Mattie May (my favorite subject) or of fish. But two things I am not is a professional photographer or a birder. I know there are several of you out there that do both of these things very well. That brings me to my next series of pictures. We saw several of these birds on Saturday. We would like to know what they are. Two things I can tell you about them that you can't tell from the pictures is that they are loud and annoying! They have one of the loudest calls I have ever heard. And they annoyingly do it over and over, weather they are in the air, the water, or on land.

So if anyone out there can help, Frank and I would really appreciate it.

So, we flipped all day. And most of you know how much I hate flipping, but I did it all day without complaining. I did have to remind Frank why I don't like it, my rod always ends up in the trees, and remember that snake? Yeah, I don't like flipping.

Frank had three fish for a total of 12.54 and I had one fish for 3.54. He caught fish all day, and even culled. We just couldn't ever come across that kicker fish we are always looking for. That is the story of our fishing lives!