Another Great Morning on the LLM

 Today was not supposed to be a good day. The winds were forecast to be breezy, the bite was forecast to be strong before daylight, and the water was off color yesterday. But it was all wrong. The winds were very light, the water was trout green, and the tides were pouring in. And to top it off, the trout bite was on. 

I fished this am with two excellent fishermen, Lee Young, a neighbor across the channel, and my brother-in-law, David Wood. David is a retired LLM guide and one of the very best topwater lure fishermen I know. He's one of those guys who will cast his Spook until his arm falls off and then make a few more casts. Lee is also an individual who continues to excite me about fishing. He is an offshore guy and a diver, but spends a LOT of time fishing the shallow water of the LLM.

This morning, we left the fingers at 6 and headed to our continued hotspot near marker 58. We were alone, which was a surprise. I started the morning throwing a white Spook junior and had a few blowups but no connects. I also changed my position on the bar a chose to wade away from my comrades. I put on my old favorite plastic, a Hogie 5" Super Minnow in my favorite color, Halloween orange. On my first cast, I was greeted by a hard strike and secured a solid 22+, which I released. What followed was kinda unreal,  I would guess that I caught probably 30 trout in the next 45 minutes. I put three in my basket, all of which I measured at 20 inches. The bite kinda turned off around 7:30, but I continued to throw my Hogie and continued to catch and release good solid trout. My retrieve varied from allowing my bait to sink and retrieve to simply reeling it in at different speeds. It all paid off. By the time we were ready to go I lost count of my numbers. As Lee approached me, I made a long cast back toward the bar and almost immediately had a solid hookup. This one stripped line, and when I finally netted it, I was greeted by a solid 25-inch, 5-pounder. I guessed the weight. It was time to go, so we headed back to the boat, and I kept that fish in my dipnet so that we could take pictures and release her. 

It was a GREAT MORNING on the LLM. God is Good!

2025 A New Year and A Different Person!

It's really hard to grasp what has happened in my life. I did not post but one time on my blog for all of 2024. It was without reason! I just had a lot going on and just plain forgot, and when I did remember, I was probably working on videos, traveling, and, yes, fishing. But here it is June of 2025, and I am writing for some unknown reason. Many things are going on in my family life that have me praying every day. Patsy acquired a very rare cancer called IBC in late December of 2024. It was not until January of 2025 that it was finally diagnosed as Inflammatory Breast Cancer. We were able to get her into a clinical trial treatment at MD Anderson in Houston. After many weeks of chemical treatment and many trips to Houston, she was able to have a single mastectomy at MDA. We are presently back in PI and she is receiving chemotherapy locally in Harlingen.  When she finishes her twelve infusions, we will move to Houston for six weeks for her to get radiation treatment, then back to PI for her to finish up her chemical treatments. We are praying that all goes well and that we can travel to Cabo in October. Patsy has been doing exceptionally well considering what she's gone through to this point. Prayers have worked, and God has been good. Now lets get to some fishing.

The winds have been pounding. Most of April and May were blown out, but there were a few days we were able to go to the bars and wade. The water in April was still a little cold to wade without waders, but when we were able to fish, we did well. The majority of our trout were taken on plastics. The DownSouth and Hogies lures took most of our keeper trout. It's pretty amazing since the state changed the size and length trout regs, that it's really hard to catch an under 15in. fish. The majority of our trout are in the 18 to 20 in. range. We've also been taking a good number of 22in.+ fish on topwaters. The big ZaraSpook in green/white has been working for "past" guide David Wood. David continues to bang away with topwaters after everyone else had turned to plastics. They seem to work for him!

Who says that girls can't wade fish? I have always enjoyed taking girls out and putting them on fish. The only problem is that many times they cannot wade as deep as I do and may have a problem getting to the fish. This was not a problem for Jeanette Middleton, daughter-in-law, and her good friend Collette, who waded with me in May. Then, a week later, Jeanette's daughter, Hanna, and Collette's daughter, Kady, came down and fished. The winds blew, but we caught fish.

In fact, Hanna, my granddaughter, took one of the biggest trout she had ever caught! The girls enjoyed a great morning on the water when most of our fish were taken by sunrise. Limits by 7:30 has been my battle cry. With Patsy having infusion treatments on Wednesdays, and Mondays taken by Cornerstone Church Men's group, I really only have three days a week to fish! Oh, poor me! But the fact is that we've been leaving about 30 minutes before light, hitting the bar, and wading in the dark. It has paid off with numerous limits on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We are usually back cleaning fish, washing all down, and having breakfast by 10. Makes for a great day in paradise.

I'm trying to get back to my blog. Help me by giving me a thumbs up or just not saying anything.

Remember HE loves us, and we need to put our total faith in HIM.

God Bless!

 

Getting Older and Fatter By the Day!

 It's been some time since I last posted on MY OWN BLOG. In fact, the last time was in 2023 when we all went to Cabo. Well here it is halfway through 2024 and I've finally decided to write again. I am probably prompted by several factors. First, I am still fishing, catching good fish, running my own boat, and wading fishing. Second, I see many young people trying to continue using fishing as their total employment, and I'll talk about that later. Last, I have a friend who has started a new website called AnglerU.com and I feel that my knowledge as a very long-time angler should at least get me an honorary degree!

So here we go and I am going to try hard to stay in the game and continue to write.

This week I was able to wade fish two great days with two different friends and we did very well on trout.

On Friday, Dale K and I headed out of the Fingers at around 6:30 and hit the area west of Marker 58. We were in the water by 7 and I probably caught my first trout at around 7:05. I continue to use a float bag to keep fish in and it really helps to cull. I usually do not keep any 15-inch trout so the ones I culled were in the 16-17 inch range. By 8 both of us had limited on good trout and headed back to the boat. We boxed 6 good trout that ranged from 18-20 inches. We decided to continue to just catch and release. From 8 until around 9:30, Dale and I caught and released around 50 to 75 good trout. I managed one that I estimated to be 26+, but as I was headed back to the boat to measure he slipped. Oh well, that's fishing!

On Saturday, Polo Sanchez, a young man who works for the Border Patrol and is an excellent angler joined me in our wade excursion. We again hit the Marker 58 area, but when we arrived it was covered by guide boats. It appeared the majority were fishing croakers. We were able to still wade as they were not directly on the bar. Water conditions had changed and the water currents were not anywhere close to where they were on Friday. I started with my favorite Hogie plastic in the Brown White combo, but the fish were just not there like the day before. Polo and I did manage a limit, but it was super slow. 

I had tried to use a different camera mount for my Insta 360, but it became a real chore to keep it stable on my person. When I got back to my office, I worked on making a mount to be fastened to my float bag. I think it's going to work much better. Hopefully, I can get some good footage on Friday of this week. We are hoping the weather will cooperate.

Here are a few pics from our Saturday trip

    

CABO ....REVISITED!

We headed back to Cabo San Lucas in early May with our entire family. A grand total of 14 adults and one great-granddaughter. This would make the fifth time Patsy and I have been to Cabo. We own a timeshare at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach and enjoyed our vacations there. I had planned two days of fishing with the kids, trying to alternate days with them. I rented boats for those who didn't get to fish with me. It worked out great, with the hard part, getting fishing licenses for all the kids. You can always expect the unexpected in Mexico and buying fishing licenses was indeed a challenge. We found there were only two places to purchase licenses. One of those is a kiosk in the large mall in downtown Cabo. It was staffed by a very helpful assistant, but we found that the EXACT amount in pesos was required. No change was given and you had to have the EXACT amount for each license.  I was able to secure my license, but we knew we had to find a bank to get 10 more individual EXACT amounts of pesos. Patsy undertook the challenge with our oldest son and after enduring several hours, put fishing licenses in the hands of all involved. I booked our trips with Cabo Mahi-Mahi Charters with Capt. Jose Cesena on his 26" Never Know and the 35' Oh! Right. I booked two days on both boats. My intention was to fish my charter for trophy roosterfish and allow the other boat with my other kids to just fish. 

Continued......

       

DANG IT"S 2022!

 My last post was in June of 2021 and it was titled "Can You Believe Its  "2021?"

Well here it is 2022 and the world is going to hell in a handbag. I turned 75 in January and really starting to fell the wear and tear on my body. No more serious health problems, but it is getting harder to get out of bed in the mornings. Fishing by myself is still a go, but I really like to be joined by someone. The weather this spring has been up and down. Lots of wind with fronts coming in almost weekly. Here it is the end of April and  as I looked at the weather we are forecast to have 20-25 mph blows all next week. I am headed to Cabo in May with all of our family. I am planning to fish at least two days. I  have a large Roosterfish on my bucket list and hope to connect in order to fill a space on my wall. I've taken a number of 30lb + fish, but I'd really like a 50lb+ fish to mount. I'm sure we will catch some good fish, probably dorados. 

I was able to fish in Mexico, near Punta Mita back in January with a good friend from Center, Texas. We fished two great days with a local guide. He put us on some big yellowfin tuna. I had never taken big yellowfins before and it was quite a fight. 

In March, I hosted my good friends, Damon and Emma Ankenman, from Houston for a week of fishing. We were able to get out three of the five days. Damon and I were able to find good fish all three days. We fished West Bar, out of Holley Beach area and then the Marker 57-58 bars. All our fish were taken on plastics, with the majority on Hogies.

 This past Friday, May 6, the winds finally quieted down to under 15 in the early morning. Dale K and I hit the 57-58 bar early and by 7:30 we had limited out. We both continued to fish until around 9, catching mostly keeper size trout and releasing. We ended the morning with 2 20s, a 19 and 3 18s. All were taken on the ChickenBoy  4" shrimp in texasroach-chart color. A friend put me on this lure several months back and I really like it. It has great action both on the drop and on a slow intermittent retrieve.

I'm going to go ahead and publish this blog page and have plans, if the creeks don't rise and my Lord allows, for continued posting after our trip to Cabo. The weather should be improving and its definitely going to get hotter. Pray for our country and our crazy government. Watch your investments...they are plunging right now, but I think there is a glow on the horizon. It will be November when that faint glow becomes very bright!

Take care, go fishing, love your wife and kids, worship, and God Bless! 

Can you believe it's 2021!

I remember back some 20 plus years...2000. We thought the world was going to end at midnight or at least something terrible was going to occur. Well here we are in 2021 and for the most part all is well. God is good!

It's been some time since I last wrote in my blog. Lots going on in my world. We had a very cold winter and a hard freeze. Unusual for the Texas valley. It hurt the fish. We lost a sizeable number of trout and lots of baitfish. At one time the redfish were congregated by the hundreds in the channels here in the fingers. It was easy pickings for some.

I had my left hip replaced in the early part of this year. It has been great. I now feel like the bionic man. Lots of metal in my body, two knees and two hips. I'm pretty sure if I took up scuba again I wouldn't need a weight belt. I'm sure the replacements had to add some extra weight!

Lets get back to fishing. I've been doing quite a lot of wade fishing and I have not seen a shortage of fish. After the freeze the state changed the bag limits and size on trout. Three trout, 17" to 25". When the limit was 15" and five, we were catching lots of 14"+fish. Now it seems we are taking a lot of 16"+ fish! 

I've been fishing one of my favorite spots the last several trips. I am amazed at the number of guides now working on this part of the coast. Another guide friend told me there were some 200+ guides now working Port Isabel and South Padre. It seems my favorite wade spot is also a favorite guide spot. On any given day there are at least 6-10 boats in the immediate area. 

I fished today and as nearly all of my trips, I have headed for my mark early, 5:30 in order to secure a spot and get there before the guide procession. When I exited the fingers, the bay was almost flat. I envisioned a perfect day  of wade fishing. It turned out not so and actually ended with me thinking that the lighting that was hitting all around me would probably get me before I got back in. 

 I had tried wading in the rain, but that became an unbearable task. The winds had picked up and the wave action on my back was not good. It reminded me of fishing the surf, but the waves were pounding from the wrong direction. The currents in the bay were exceptionally strong today. After attempting to fish at two different locations and only catching one small trout I decided to call it a day and make a run for home. On the way in I encountered  hard driving rain, some pretty good wave action, and the lighting mentioned earlier.

I made it back in, safe, wet, and cold. No fish. I just marked it as  a good day on the water, and better than working, or sitting in my man cave doing this blog. I feel that I need to continue to write this blog. I figure I am presently pushing three quarters of a century and my fishing and writing won't last till the end of the century. Enjoy and let me know how yo feel about this  blog.     

Another DAMN HIP

Just when you think things are getting better...Our God decides I need a little more time to get things right. After my first hip replacement on April 27, I was making great progress until I visited the Middleton home and suffered a dislocation on June 6. Never had anything hurt so bad! Had to be transported to Houston  for a relocation and then headed back to the Middleton ranch for a little R&R. July brought our reunion time and you can read about that on a previous blog.

Then on Tuesday, July 21, I was visiting my PT here in Port Isabel and had another dislocation. I spent twelve hellish hours in the ER at Valley Baptist before getting it relocated late that night. I contacted my Doctor in Houston and he advised me to come in. On Friday we traveled to Houston and it was decided that I needed NEW HARDWARE put in. We headed back to the Middleton home base and then reported to Texas Orthopedic Hospital on Monday. Had my new hardware put in and headed back to Halletsville for a couple days before returning to Port Isabel. 

It has now been four weeks of recuperating and I am really tired of sitting on my butt watching "Justification". I am ready to FISH, but know it's probably going to be at least another 4-5 weeks before I can hit the water. I know I will be better than I was prior to April 27, but this challenge has made me more aware of life and whats happening around me. I've been able to spend more time with my wife and my God. God is good...all the time.