Tag Archives: Fishing

Writing Prompts

Fishing and Riding the Waves

Taken from the fishing pier, the Lydia Ann Lighthouse

It’s been an interesting couple of days, busy with activities such as fishing and riding the waves, so today I’m resting my sore back.

Wednesday we went fishing at the park pier and I scored two small fish, and Dave got one. They were of no value, so we tossed them back. One was a hard-head catfish and we don’t know what the other one was, but they ate all of our shrimp!

A pretty shot of a house near the main fishing pier.


Dave looking like a true fisherman.

Me with the unknown fish and pictured is the hard-head catfish.

Yesterday, we went to the big concrete pier that most people go to, it might be the Pat Magee pier, anyway, we fought the wind and waves caused by large ships passing through and did no good at all, so we went home, ate lunch, and ventured out to the beach.

One of the big ships that passed through.

A beautiful day with kicked up waves, little to no seaweed, and puffy clouds along the horizon.

Even though it was extremely windy, we managed to put up the little shelter because Dave remembered the stronger tent stakes. Once or twice, we worried the tide was coming in and we might have to move, but we actually stayed in the same spot for the three hours we were there.

I caught a couple of good waves on my boogie board, and figured out that fighting the waves is really great exercise for me, because all of my rings were closed last night on my Apple Watch. The waves were different than usual, they came in sets, and when standing on the third sandbar, I could literally see the wave draw back the water to the point I could almost see the sandbar before it curled down and I thrust myself in front of it, hopped on the board, and it propelled me rapidly toward the shore. It’s such a rush, y’all, I wish it lasted longer. If only I knew how to surf on a surfboard, but at 62 with bad knees, it’s not in the cards I’m afraid. Anyway, normally, when the waves are bigger and harder to fight, I can’t make it to the third sandbar. That’s what made yesterday’s waves so perfect. I wasn’t too far out for Dave to get worried, or he’d have been whistling from the beach. (Like I’m one of his kids, lol). Floating on my boogie board was not as easy though because of the waves. I tire more easily now, so after a twenty minute session of fighting and riding, I have to rest before going out again. Another thing about my age is I pay for it the next day. Sore muscles, sore back. Some of that is from sitting too.

I took a cute video of a lady playing ball with her dog in the surf, but WordPress won’t let me post it. Anyway, he really loved the waves and would have done it all day. He did get sick a couple of times, which she had to clean up, from drinking salt water.

Fishing is not boring to me, I love it. Except when bobber fishing on a bad day. Watching the bobber for long periods of time with no chair is boring and also gets to my back. I like fishing with bait. Or lures. Dave tried his luck in the surf yesterday with a lure, but the waves were too rough for his small rod and reel. We don’t have surf gear for fishing because he said those rods were ruined from sitting in the shed too long.

Standard
Writing Prompts

No Plans – SoCS

It’s a cloudy, muggy day so far and other than watching golf, we have no particular agenda. I guess I’ll tackle Linda G Hill’s SoCS prompt for today: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “stick.” Use it as a noun or a verb; use it any way you’d like. Have fun! HERE are the rules & ping back. Join us if you can.

Maybe I’ll stick around here and work on craft projects like macramé air plant holders for friends that will be visiting later next month. Or make some anklets from macramé and beads.

David fed me donut and half a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant for breakfast, so I definitely need to fit some exercise in somewhere! I wanted to go ride our bikes, yet rain is eminent…so they say. It’s always dicey trying to predict what’s going to happen here on the pond.

Yesterday, we gave fishing another try off the bulkhead, but nothing was biting but the crabs, who ate all our shrimp!

At least the water was gorgeous, the wind kept us moderately cool, and Dave brought the speaker, so we had our jams to listen to. We also saw three massive ships 🚢 sail through.

Looking across the ship channel at Aransas Terminal Company-Harbor Island.

See the edge of the bulkhead in the bottom lower left of the picture? Believe it or not, some guy was surfing the waves that one of the massive ships created! Had I known he was going to be there and do that, I’d have stuck my fishing pole somewhere and taken a video! I couldn’t believe it! Ya really had to be there! People are crazy…or crazy skilled, idk.

After we gave up on the fishing, we drove down the beach, which looked the same as the day before, and there are already tons of people there. All seemed to be flying beautiful kites of all kinds, waving flags or banners announcing different teams or groups, and Jeep after Jeep clubs were lined up all the way down the beach. Guess if we were part of the Jeep community, we’d have known, but at least we don’t have to have Jeep envy! We have one! I have a total of three ducks btw, if anyone cares. 🤣

Just look at all the kites! These two pics are just a small example.

If you expand the picture, you can see them in more detail.

I just came up with an idea, kill two birds and such. I Can make the trek to the Art Center, a place I’d rather visit than Dave, and leave the golf watching to him. 😁 Right after I finish the laundry. 🙄

Standard
Writing Prompts

Blame it on the Rain – SOCS

Over the next few days, we are expecting rain. Lots of it.

Unfortunately, that means I won’t be riding my new bike anytime soon. Currently, it’s folded up and stored in the back of the Jeep until our bike cover gets here…hopefully, today.

During a break in the rain, we ran up to the island IGA to find something to cook for dinner tonight. When I suggested seafood, we promptly left to go to the fish market. Why pay for frozen when you can have fresh and cook it yourself??

I was overjoyed when he got back in the vehicle with fresh mahi and shrimp! That will go well on the grill. It was a little bit costly, but still cheaper than going out to eat. By the time you get your meal, a drink, and pay the tax and tip…I don’t need to explain. Everyone knows how expensive things are right now, especially when visiting a touristy place like this.

I want to go over to St Jo like I normally do, alone or with a girlfriend, so we stopped to get a schedule for the jetty boat. Unfortunately, its motor went out, so no telling when that will be up and running again. People with their own boats can get there, but no jetty boat means no St Jo trip for awhile. Bummer. We also drove a little ways down the beach. The rain has stopped for the time being, so it was busy even though the dark clouds are still looming and the flag status is definitely red! People were fishing off the pier and kids were frolicking in the waves; albeit close enough to shore that they weren’t in any danger. Dave is still watching the golf tournament, so if I want to go do anything, I’m on my own. I’ll be so glad when next month gets here and my friends come to visit! Us girls will just take off!

Yesterday, I walked to a nearby gift shop to look for a couple of cheap(ish) shirts because my summer wardrobe is woefully thin. I was lucky enough to find two racer back shirts for $18. Not my kind of prices, but probably the best deal I’m going to find on the island. There’s no Walmart here, and I wasn’t driving to Aransas Pass. You might think, “What’s the big deal about driving there?” Well, you have to go by ferry, which always has a line, drive about ten miles to the store, then repeat that back…but the wait to get back on the island is anywhere from 15-45 minutes, until summertime, then it’s more like an hour!! Same deal about going to fish the flats. You’re better off finding a good spot on the island than trying to go to the flats, which you’d need to plan to spend half a day doing.

We did go fishing yesterday but it turned out to be overwhelming. We were fishing from the pier, fighting the seaweed and the pelicans, losing our bait and tackle over and over again. We caught nothing but seaweed, and I broke off at least three lines on whatever junk sits on the bottom next to the pier. So, I cost us basically all of our tackle and bait. 😌

I know, it’s part of fishing but what an even worse is I might have injured a pelican. I felt horrible, but the darn thing was right behind me as I went to cast out, and he either snapped up my hook or I hooked him, it happened so fast I don’t know, and he flew down into the water flapping like mad. Eventually, he got it out on his own, I wasn’t in a position to help him, but don’t think I’m scared to. I’ve helped free one from a fishing net or a maybe it was fishing line, I don’t remember. We were in Louisiana and Chris’s friend Adam and I were swimming when we noticed the pelican in distress. Believe it or not, the bird let us fuss with him together and finally he was free! That felt great, but what happened yesterday was disheartening. One lady on the pier had a fish, and a different pelican snapped it up and she kicked at it til he let go and flew off. I realize they are pests, but still. That was mean. Just let it go lady.

I did manage to catch a couple of dolphins swimming and eating and a large ship going out to sea.

You may have to expand the pic to see the dolphins. See the seaweed?
The back of the Water Tiger

And the front, guided by the Pilot boat.

Oh yeah, the man-of-war are plentiful right now, which is another reason I don’t mind not getting in the water so much. We’ve been spotting a few washed up on the beach and yesterday, they floated freely in the ship channel below us. I should have taken a pic. They are a type of jellyfish that will sting you pretty bad. I guess there’s a season for them to be so plentiful right now.

Standard
Writing Prompts

WOD Challenge 4-4-22 What a Great Week!

As you may or may not know, from last Wednesday to this past Sunday, I was in Yantis, Texas for what the guys call Bass Camp. It’s an informal gathering of friends and family that partake in fishing, playing games, eating great food, and nightly gatherings around the campfire, drinking and telling crazy stories- including wild fish stories.

Late sunset at Lake Fork

I am happy to report that I kept up my daily walks, closing my rings almost every night! However, I have more than a little concern over my knee, which decided to swell up due to the rough terrain I walked on as opposed to my indoor walking workouts on the rug in front of my TV every day.

The trail to the lake.

I walked up hills, perched on steep ledges, and balanced on boats all in my quest to either stay fit or catch a fish! I did too, counting the ones from the charter crappie fishing trip we took, I caught a total of 14 fish! Around 11 crappie, one big catfish, and a sand bass.

Connie caught around the same amount and type, plus a gremmal…that’s a nasty, slimy, good-for-nothing type of catfish. And, besides the wind, we also fought the cold. On the boat we chartered to catch crappie, it was a cold morning, so I had on jeans, boots, three shirts, a coat, a gator, and a rain suit jacket!

Me during the chartered crappie trip.

With all of that though, we had so much fun. We had the freedom to do what we wanted when we wanted except for the ability to watch TV. I saw no programs for 5 days!! Maybe it’s a good thing! In a way, I didn’t even miss it. We’ve made good friends, including Richard, an old-timer who lives on the property. The lake was so low, that we were fishing from banks that are normally underwater. Lake Fork is normally full of stumps, but now you can see all of them, not just the ones that rise above the water. The engineers had to drain part of the lake to work on the dam. It’s amazing we could even get out in the boat with all the hazardous stumps everywhere, but skilled boatsmen had no problems.

Bubba guided us around and through all the stumps.

We had a nightly campfire, but on Friday night they burned a huge bonfire to reduce waste and get rid of some wood, metal, and plastic chairs that had piled up during the clean up of the property. I took awesome slo-mo pics, but can’t figure out how to post them here, I will try with my phone.

A still photo of the bonfire, i can’t post the videos for whatever reason.

Besides cornhole, which one of the more crass visitors renamed “nutsack”, we played a game called Shoot the Moon using dominos in an effort to learn a more complicated game called 42. We never got there. Connie and I were learning Moon from the pros, Chuck B and Chuck L who also lives on the property and they get pretty busy with all of the cooking every night, so somehow we never got enough lessons. This year was much less rowdy than past Bass Camps…maybe we are all getting old, lol!

My crappie I caught from the bank!

I was bummed that my husband never made it up, maybe next year. I wish we could get our own camper, then he would be more comfortable. Plus, then we could take it everywhere and eliminate the need to rent condos or cabins. Bubba and Connie just clean and button up their RV and leave it on the campsite.

Connie caught one off the bank too!
Off course, there was the huge yearly crawfish boil!

Well, the pool sweep is stuck, so I have to go free it. Until next time, have a great day!

Word of the Day Challenge

Standard
Uncategorized, Writing

Bass Camp-Crawfish Boil

Before I get to Saturday afternoon and the crawfish 🦞 boil, I have to show you some pics from Friday afternoons fruitless but fun fishing trip.

My guys baiting hooks

We stayed on the fringes of the finger of the lake closest to our camp, where we observed snowy white birds, herons, I think, yet I was too far for really good pics. I tried to catch them in flight as well, but the pics turned out fuzzy.

Not sure what the bird is on top of the dead tree limb, an oriole maybe? Lake Fork is full of old tree stumps, rising up out of the water all over the place, treacherous for boaters unless you have equipment to see below the boat. Some stumps you can’t see. Fish finders show these stumps and tree roots as well as fish, yet the fish were very elusive this weekend.

Sister-in-law Connie relaxing with me in the camper

Friday night and all day Saturday it rained, so we were pretty much stuck in the camper, my sister-in-law Connie kept me company as I worked on my Diamond Art project, waiting for it to be time for the crawfish boil…the highlight of the weekend.

Later on we got a break from the rain and went over to the area where the guys were prepping for the boil. The ladies cut sausage, cleaned mushrooms, and peeled onions as part of the prep.

Here is the chef, Dennis, as he puts everything in the pot for the first run

Lucas, Jeannie, and John sampling the first batch-Jeannie holding a dead crawfish which had to be tossed. A good crawfish goes in the pot alive and kickin! In the boil is crawfish and special seasoning, potatoes, onions, garlic, Brussels sprouts, sausage, and corn on the cob. Personally, I thought the sprouts and the sausage were hotter than the crawfish, I don’t eat corn or potatoes, but they were said to hold the heat too!

Me happily eating the third batch, it had the biggest and best tasting crawfish of the day, sausage, and spicy Brussels sprouts

Hubby Dave is at the end of the table sporting a Belfor hoodie, long time friends Gary and Bruce to his left and next to Bruce is Rudy who works at Tinker’s shop right up the road. I believe that is Tim on my left, we were all taking advantage of the final batch. I wish I had worn my hat 🧢 because I’m looking pretty rough.

The patriarch John takes a rest under the covered patio as I take a shot of the bbq area.

Of course, crawfish and drinking go hand in hand, and as we all finished eating and moved to gather around the warm pots, we saw Bubba commit a party foul, see his spilled drink on the floor? 🤣

Brother-in-law Robert aka Bubba picks up his spilled drink

Later on we gathered around the fire to observe the beautiful colors from the copper something or other that got thrown in the fire pit.

Earlier, the fire pit had been filled with the day’s rainfall, we were lucky to even have one!

The sprinkles forced us to leave the fire and some of us retired to Gary and Stephanie’s camper to play a fun game called “shut the box”, here are Luke, Tim, Bruce and Bubba flashing the peace sign at us as I took a pic of the party people watching Stephanie and I play the game. Later each one of them came and played a round or two with us, which I kept winning (beginners luck I’m sure) until we finally called it quits late into the night. We were quite boisterous so I’m sure the neighbors were happy when we finally went to bed.

On the way home, I asked Dave to pull over so I could capture a few picks of the wild flowers growing on the sides of the road. We didn’t see as many as we would have had we been on I20 but I got some.

Bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush and other wildflowers in the peak of the season.

I wished I had been fast enough to capture the one area that had all the beautiful colors like orange, blue, and fiery red growing on the shoulder under an overpass.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, a much needed break where we hardly worried about anything and just went with the flow. We we met lots of fine new folks and I would love to go again next year!

Getting home was easier than getting there, and once home we got cleaned up, did laundry and rested our sore, tired bodies. We might be out of practice and maybe a little old for all that much fun! Of course my knee is swollen even though I wore my brace the whole time, it could be from the two hour ride in the car, who knows. Dave accidentally shut his thumb in the screen door on the RV, but other than that we came out unscathed.

I even went off my diet for the weekend and after checking Pinterest when we rested a bit, I wanted some sweet potato chips, so Dave pulled out the mandolin and whipped me up a batch. Note to self, after salting I should have rinsed and patted dry before frying in the coconut oil. They we still quite tasty even though they were salty, and we had an oversized sweet potato that made a pretty good batch! I have plenty left!

Frying up some sweet potato chips

Cooking them in coconut oil makes them a healthy snack, but not Keto friendly. Needless to say, I’ll be back on the wagon tomorrow 😉

Standard