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.

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!

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!

I do still live, Just on vacation!

We are in vacation this weekend. Pop over to Lolo's Blog and check out our adventures!

Where is Brandi

Please see this post as to what is going on and why I have not posted here for awhile!