It is hot already! Lots of fishing going on just not a lot of catching! I really hope it's better tomorrow for the tournament! Does anyone have any suggestions?

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!

Tourny This Weekend - Twin Buttes

MAN - IT IS HOT OUTSIDE!!!

We will be fishing with TBC West this Sunday, June 28. Any suggestions? Frank did a little pre-fishing last Sunday with no luck. Everyone that was there last week at least did the same as Frank. This may be a tournament without any fish! They are smart to be hiding out in the water. It is much to hot out of it!

Hopefully, I will have something to report on Monday. But seriously, if you have any suggestions, let us know!

One Fish!

WOW! I almost let the entire week get away from me before I did this post! It has been a strange week anyway but it is almost over and vacation is next week so all will be fine!

We headed out Saturday afternoon to Post, not in any hurry. We didn't want to have to pay that horrible lake fee for just a few hours! The landscape of Texas is changing, A LOT! Wind turbines are sprouting up in cotton fields and can be seen for miles away. We are (as we should be) the leader in wind energy, because if there is one thing Texas has is wind, lots and lots of wind. We are so used to it that we really only notice if it is not blowing or if it is stronger than about 25 MPH! It is just always there. They are pretty cool to watch though. If you have never been to the Panhandle Plains region of Texas, welcome. You can see how flat it is by this picture. I could take 1,000 pictures and they would all be pretty similar!

We hung around the hotel pretty much all Saturday evening. There is really not a lot to do in Post, TX. City-data.com says there are 3,556 in Post, but I think they counted dogs and cats. There are not a lot of people here. We did find a nice family restaurant to eat supper and it was really good. I wish I could remember the name of it but I can't. It is on the east side of the main street through town, south of downtown. Great enchiladas!

The tournament started at 6:00AM so we had to get up at five which hasn't been so bad on me since I started trying to get up at that time most days anyway. It was a fairly cool morning. Strange since we were expecting temps over 100! There was a little rain that kept the morning cool and the fish from biting. We threw a little bit of everything we could think of and not even a single nibble! I don't remember what part of the day it was but Frank finally had a hit. We were just excited to know there were actually fish in this lake!

We had to be at weigh in by 2:30PM and about one we decided we were going to be skunked! We hate being skunked!!! That is the most horrible feeling in the world. But just as we were having this conversation, Frank caught a fish. Not a lunker, but at this point we really didn't care. We could have 2 under 18" so we didn't even measure this little guy, just put him in the live well and took care of him for the rest of the day. He weighed a whopping 1.12 lbs. Hey, we were thrilled he weighed even a pound! We really didn't think he would.

So my first experience on Lake Alan Henry wasn't the best, but I will say this for it, it is a really pretty lake. I will try to add some pictures and edit this post to show them. Another think that really grabbed my attention about this lake is the wind and water. Most lakes we fish are as rough as all get out when the wind is up. Sunday, I think the wind was about 30MPH and the water was a smooth as glass! It was amazing. The only real rough water we got into was where there were skiers and jet skis. Luckily they didn't get to the lake until about 11, so we had some quiet time to fish.

Hope every one is having a great week. We don't have tournaments for a few more weeks, but we may try to do a little fishing on vacation, it all just depends on Mattie May. This vacation is for her to get to the beach after all!!!

God Bless!

Lake Alan Henry - Pre-fish

Frank and Poppa have always wanted to fish Lake Alan Henry and neither have gotten the opportunity. Frank has driven past the turnoff several times with drool running down his chin but never made thet turn. Poppa actually got to the ramp last Saturday, but family called and that is as far as he got. Since the Panhandle region of TBC is there next week, Frank wanted to do a little prefishing and Poppa, well I can't say I ever remember him ever turning down an chance to go fishing, so he left the plowing for the day and headed out with Frank.

They had a great time. Poppa took some pictures for me including some of the parking lot so I will know what to expect next week when I have to park. Ever since I hit a guys lower unit with my trailer, I dread parking in a place I am not familiar with. This parking lot looks great. He compared it to Bass Pro Shop parking but it reminded me of Diablo East at Lake Amistad. Lots of parking made for a vehicle and trailer combo and very well marked.

They both caught fish, just nothing of size. Frank pulled this little guy out and it was the largest they caught. I think it is the angle of the camera, but it doesn't look like a four pound fish, but as you can see on the delier, it was 4.01.
I am looking forward to next week. It will be like a mini vacation, going to a new place and all.

Oh! If any of you know a good place to stay that doesn't have a two night minimum on the weekends, let me know. I haven't made reservations yet!