Janet's dad's family has a few avid fishermen in it. Uncle Phil is probably the most out of all of them. He is around 70 ish, and still goes deep sea fishing in the gulf every year, and hunts for alligators bare handed. I love the guy... he is crazy! Everyone arrived about a day before we did. The day we went to the Hen house one of the kids caught a cat that was probably 14-16 inches long, and then they hooked another that was bigger because this one broke the line. They sent us pictures as we were driving there; trying to get me even more pumped to fish. I don't know if that is possible. Anyway, they were setting up a trotline from one dock to the other when we arrived. I brought my fishing stuff along with me hoping to get out on the kayak and try out my 7wt, and I also brought my spincasting rod, but it never got used.
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| Isis with the catfish. |
Day one consisted of lots of boating and a pretty intense sunburn on my shoulders and back. The family rented a deckboat and a tube, and it ran most of the day. It was a ton of fun. That was Janet's birthday, and she told me while we were out on the tube that it was the best birthday she has had in a while. She loves boating. That night I tried to do some fly fishing, but was unsuccessful. I got out on the water a little late, and had to paddle back in the dark. The next day Phil went shopping and came back with a cow tongue and successfully grossed all the women out. He loves scaring people, and grossing them out, and I can't think of anything better than a cow tongue to aid in such endeavors. He baited the trotline with the tongue, and put together some jugs to jug fish using the tongue as bait.
The next morning I got to give my rod another try. I slipped out around 7:30 on the kayak. On my way out, Phil told me that he couldn't find one of his jugs, and asked me to bring it back if I found it. I rowed across the lake to the other side to get into the shade, and to try and fish near the reeds. There were quite a few fish rising over there, but I think I scared them all away pretty quickly. I was struggling to cast from the kayak. I couldn't get my loops very tight, and kept skipping my flies across the water making huge splashes. After a while I started to get the hang of it though, and pretty soon felt a bite, but I didn't hook it. In the distance I saw the jug Phil had lost, and decided to slowly work towards it. As I continued down the shoreline, I only felt one other bite. I'm pretty proud of those two bites though. The scenery was amazing along the way. I love to be out on the still water of a lake early in the morning. I saw two cranes hunting in the distance, and even saw one dive for a fish. I was excited to see that. I finally decided to give up the fly rod, and just get the jug. Nothing was on it when I picked it up, the current must have pulled it away from our dock. I threw the jug into the back of the kayak, and left the hook and bait in the water as I paddled back to our dock. After about a minute of paddling, I felt a fish on the hook. I pulled it up, and there was a 10 or 12 inch bass. I was pretty stoked, and brought it back so I could show everybody that I DID catch SOMETHING. Janet's niece Isis loved the fish and begged to hold it. She was fascinated with it's eyes, and kept poking them. Phil and uncle Mark kept chuckling about the bass that went for the cow tongue. Eventually uncle Mark helped me scale the fish, gut it, and remove the head so we could cook it up with all of the fish Phil brought up from one of his deep sea adventures. I finally gutted my first fish and ate it. It wasn't as flavorful as the red fish, sea trout, and lemon fish Phil brought, but it was pretty good still.
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| Getting ready to eat the bass. |
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