I went to the lake by myself last Saturday, but found a few fishing partners after I got there. I put out a few jug lines and then went to the back of a creek. Just as I got my lines in the water a couple of guys who were camping nearby came to fish on the bank. Soon after they got there I hooked my first fish, a 3 lb channel cat. They were more exited than I was. Shortly after that I hooked another, and while I was getting that one in I hooked one on my other line. My audience on the bank was shouting encouragement and cheering me on. They were fishing the same water I was and weren’t catching anything, but one of the guys said, “I don’t care if I don’t catch anything all day. It’s just fun to sit here and watch someone catching something.” After an hour or so of fishing and visiting with those guys I was running low on shad and left to go check my jugs.
I had taken several fish off of the jug lines, and had found all but one of them. As I was looking around for the last one I noticed a bunch of kids across the way waving at me and pointing. I thought I had heard them whistling as I passed them earlier, but hadn’t paid them any attention. They were pointing to my missing jug which was by this time about 200 yards from where I thought it should be and was still on the move. I motored over to it and they cheered as they watched me pull in my biggest fish of the day. I went over and told them thanks for pointing it out to me and they told me how they had watched it from the time the fish bit and had followed its progress across the lake. (the picture in my previous post is from that day)
After church on Sunday, Dr. Lurry Leavelle, a retired gynecologist, asked me if the fish were biting. I said, “Yes, they are.” and asked if he wanted to go. He said “Yes, I do.” and we made plans to meet that afternoon. It was raining at the time, but the weatherman said that it was supposed to stop that afternoon. I got to the lake first and caught some bait and started fishing. I had already caught a couple of nice ones when Dr. Leavelle called and told me he was almost there so I went to pick him up at the ramp. We started fishing and it started raining. The fish stopped biting. The weatherman was wrong and it kept raining. We didn’t catch much of anything but a wet chill, but we had a good time.
Wednesday morning I took Jones to the lake with me. We didn’t catch anything but bait. Thursday I took Georgia. Another day of catching nothing. I’ve learned to call it “going to the lake” rather than “going fishing” when I take the girls with me. Helps me to keep a better attitude and enjoy the time with my kids. They like riding in the boat, eating snacks, watching for turtles, deer, and gators, but they really don’t care whether we catch anything or not. They just like spending time with their daddy and I like spending time with them.
Yesterday I got to go fishing solo. Just me and the radio talk show hosts. Rush Limbaugh , whether he’s aware of it or not, is one of my most frequent fishing partners. After two days of “going to the lake” and catching nothing I was glad to be out “fishing” by myself. A cold front had pushed through Thursday night and there was still a north wind blowing with temperatures in the upper 50’s. I went to a place I hadn’t fished in a while, but that I thought might be productive given the weather conditions. It was. I caught this big bluecat.
I didn’t have a scale but I’m sure it was over 20 lbs. I also caught several others that weren’t picture worthy, but will taste just fine.
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