I spent much of the early spring so far trying to find new creeks and streams with public access to give me more options for catching bait. I even contemplated starting a small business selling creek chubs and other live and cut bait. It turned out to be a little more complicated at this point to be worth my while, but it may be doable in the future if I get a good system figured out. Chubs can be a lot of work to keep alive, so I've got to get a good and affordable livewell system in place that can hold high numbers without my having to spend very much time changing out water. I also have to have a lot of spots where I can catch them. Two or three good days on a even a nice long section of creek can deplete the chubs to nothing until you get at least one more heavy rain. I did find a few more decent places close by to fish for them and also discovered brown trout. I caught several of them out of Buck Creek and found it to be a great time.
With the warmer than normal weather that we've been having, the cats were always in the back of my mind. I finally got the boat and my gear ready, and the boys and I spent half a day out by Bruce's Bayou yesterday. It felt warm and calm at home before we left, but we found it to be pretty windy and quite a bit cooler once we got on the river. Sweatshirts and light jackets left us just a little a little too chilly to feel comfortable. I gave up my coat and let the boys use it as a blanket to keep them happy. Snacks and an iPod loaded with Superman cartoons also bought me some peace. I almost paid dearly for it, though. Towards the end of our evening, I turned around just in time to stop Lincoln from dropping the iPod in the river. It was dangling from two of his greasy little fingers just inches above the water. "Lincoln!! What are you doing?! Give me that thing!!" "Doesn't it float, Dad?" There was also plenty of squabbling, whining, and over-the-top silly talk about pooh, butts, and peckers. I patiently corrected them until I was blue in the face. Finally, when they had each other by both ears (4 hands, 4 ears) and were an inch from each other's face with their teeth clenched and the angry insults flowing, I gave them a little pop to the back of both of their heads (2 hands, 2 noggins). Transformed them into perfect little soldiers. Screw Super Nanny! Sometimes a measured amount of pain delivered from a controlled hand is about the only thing that will get through to a kid. It's downright tough fishing with two little boys, but despite the many difficulties we all would say that we had a good time.
It goes without saying that I could have caught a ton more fish by myself or with another adult, but we didn't do too bad. We caught a 10-pounder right off the bat and then a 5 just about as soon as we set up. That spot slowed down, so we moved a little and dropped fresh bait. Same result. Caught a couple fish in no time at all. Then it died. We were in a big flat, so this didn't make much sense, but we went with it. We found a pretty long run that averaged 13 feet deep, so we gave it a try. Caught a dink and then our biggest fish of the day. It was a 14-pounder. It bent the rod and kept it down, and then pulled out some drag on a tight reel. That was a good time. Things slowed down after that, so we decided to take a ride up river to find some snags. We probably only went about half a mile. It wasn't bordered solid with woods, so the visible snags were limited. We fished two in 4-6 feet of water. Both coughed up 2 fish, including a 13. We got a double on the second snag and Luke did a really good job bringing one of the fish in by himself. Last year he demanded that I hold the rod because the fish were too strong for him.
Lincoln had been talking about having to drop a deuce since about two hours in and we were all just a little chilled, so we decided to wrap it up at about 6:30. We had boated 11 fish. Not a bad day. Made me anxious to see what I can do on a solo trip. I had 5 cats in the livewell for a friend from work. We noticed that they were sucking up the oxygen and killing the chubs. I still had a bunch left in there, so I decided to put the cats in the bottom of the boat for the ride home. What a mess. I had to get the scrub brush and wet vac out today. That boat sure cleans up nice. I need that kind of carpet in my house with our evil little dog and 3 kids who seem to look for things to spill. We need something that we can scrub with bleach and hose down. Anyway, I'm checking the weather and my work schedule to see when I can take a day off. I'm hoping that Mort can join me for at least a few hours. When we hit that 10-pounder before the silt settled from dropping our first bait, I knew that he'd have the time of his life if he was with us. He's got plenty of chances ahead of him. We just popped the top on a new season. Let me breathe that in for a minute. A whole new season ahead of us. Life is good.
