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!

First I Stole His Heart, Now I Stole His Fish

What a day! Saturday was absolutely beautiful here in West Texas. If you didn't get to be outside to enjoy it, I'm sorry. God certainly blessed us with a day we don't usually get to see here!

We fished the San Angelo Bass Busters Open Tournament at O.H. Ivie. I came real close to staying home and taking Mattie May to the zoo, but we decided to take her Friday afternoon so I could go fish the tournament. I am so glad I did.

We headed out of Abilene at about 4:30AM to partly cloudy skies and an extremely light breeze. On the way to the lake we saw about 20 deer and one fox (he was running across the road to get out of Frank's way) and one dead skunk. As we got closer to the lake we started to notice some lightening. It looked pretty far away and so we weren't to worried about it. Stopped in at Concho Marina to grab our permit and some drinks. Nina pulled up the weather for us and that storm was getting a little to close for comfort. There were over 260 entries in the tourny, and the majority of them were hanging around the store seeing what the storm was going to do.

We had a wonderful breakfast and visited a little bit. As day light broke, we could see the storm wasn't so bad and decided to head out. Just about the time I got the truck parked, it started to rain. Frank already had his rain gear on and had mine layed out and helped me get it on. Thankfully I didn't get too wet in the process. As we left to get to our hole, the rain wasn't to bad, but still hurt the face! I still don't know why women pay so much for dermabrassion (sp)! I get it on the boat!

When we stopped, we couldn't start fishing until we looked at the splendor around us. This was our welcoming shot.

Isn't that glorious? You can see the rain cloud just in the top edge of the picture, but you can tell by the lake that there was just barely any wind. The photo below is facing back to the west. A rainbow in this direction is a rare treat for us. I don't know about you, but all this just takes my breath away.

When I saw Frank pull out the rods my heart sank. Flipping sticks! YUK! But I made up my mind right then I was going to be a sport and not complain and I didn't until about 1:30PM when my back and shoulders just couldn't take it any longer.

We were fishing a mixture of hard woods and salt cedars. I caught several fish with the cloud cover that morning and Frank caught his later in the day after the clouds broke. He had 3 fish (1 over & 2 under) that went just over eight pounds. I had 3 fish (1 over & 2 under) that went almost seven pounds. What a great day of fishing!

He always accuses me of stealing his heart and he said I wouldn't have had that many fish if I hadn't stolen his fish! Well, how can I steal it if he never caught it? He flipped in a tree twice and missed, then sat down to retie. I felt he was taking way to long and flipped up in that same tree once and caught it! It was my largest at 3 1/2 pounds. It was a really pretty fish too!

We had several friends fishing this tournament too. One of them caught a 12+! I don't remember the exact weight but it was just shy of thirteen pounds! WOW! She was so excited and I really don't blame her. She won women's big fish, big fish overall, and I think 6th place! Sorry, but they weren't fishing far from us so I can't tell you when, where or how because we have another tournament there next weekend. But I promise to give you the particulars after that tourny.

Also, sorry no fish pics! We pulled up to the ramp at ten minutes til three thinking we had until 3:30 to weigh. When Frank went up to get the truck, someone told him we had to be in line at three! NO time to take pictures. When we started pulling fish out of the live well, his watch read 2:57! I almost had a heart attack running up that hill with my weigh bag just to find out we could have weighed in until four!!! Lesson for the day - always have a copy of the rules with you in the boat!

Until next time, hope you all get to get out and enjoy the weather! God is gracious to us!!!