Happy Father's Day

Today is Father' Day and I have heard from most of my children by now. It was great talking to them and I sure miss all of them. I received a card and a special shirt from Kaitlin and Anna. It says "Grandpa has Gone Fish'n".

Max decided to jump up and read the shirt. He must need glasses if he needs to be that close to read it. (LOL)

I cooked a special Father's Day dinner which included a 6-oz. Filet Mignon, Corn on the cob and of course french fries. Yum-Yum.

For desert I had "Chocolate Lovers Cake". more Yum-Yum.

I didn't eat the entire missing piece. I've been working on it for a few days.

Actually a week ago I saw a Father's Day special from Omaha Steaks where you could get $173.00 worth of steaks, chicken, pork chops, burgers, stuffed potatoes, etc for $59.00. Sounded like a good deal and I am a Father so I ordered the package. They threw in the cake, some franks and a few extra burgers for free. What a deal, it comes out to about $4.50 a meal. The steaks are so tender since the beef has been aged for at least 21 days.

My Pizza freezer had to make room for all the frozen food.

It comes in a nice re-usable cooler and there is a small amount of dry-ice to keep it all frozen. In fact when UPS dropped it off they didn't ring the door bell to let me know it was there and it sat out in the sun for a few hours. Everything was still frozen and it actually took the dry-ice another whole day laying in the sink to finally evaporate.

Omaha Steaks have quite a system for delivering the food. You should look into it. They have deals running all the time. Their web site is http://www.omahasteaks.com/.

You won't find beef like this in the grocery store. Yes Andrew, even at Publics.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there!

End of Week Summary

It has been kind of quiet since Andrew left. Saturday evening I decided to go out and check the ole fishing spots to see if they were still producing. I invited my neighbor Joe to come out with me. I caught three 1-2 pound bass at Hot Dog Island and a nice 3.5 pound bass at 4-poles. Joe caught a few one pounders.




When Andrew was here I had a problem with starter on the bass boat engine. I thought I fixed it but it failed again while at Hot Dog Island. Luckily I had a fully charged trolling motor battery and was able to use it to get back to the dock which was 1.5 miles away. It took about 55 minutes to get back. Normally it would take only 5-minutes.

I'm updating the blog with some miscellaneous items that occured when Andrew was here. One day Andrew and I were fishing at Hot Dog Island and there was a floating platform drifting close to the river navigation channel. I reported it to the US Coast Guard Ohio Valley Sector as a navigation hazard. I kept an eye on it and it finally drifted far enough away from the channel and it was no longer a hazard.

Here are a few pictures of Andrew playing with the dogs.

That's it for now.

Fishing Week - Day 5 (Wednesday)

This is the final day of "Fishing Week" as Andrew's schedule has changed and will be heading home Thursday (early 3:00am).

We started out the morning as usual at 4-poles but there was no activity so we headed to Hot Dog island. I caught 3 small bass and Andrew caught one. Fishing was very slow. I caught another bass at a different location (B9) and it weighed 2.75 pounds. I was reeling in a spinner bait and as it got near the boat I saw the bass come slowly up and take the lure. It was pretty cool to watch.

2.75 pounds (Location B9)

We went in around 9am as we had set up appointments to check Andrew's brakes and an oil change for me. The brakes were OK.

In the afternoon Andrew did his "Thing" down at the docks but came back to the house early due to a thunder storm.

In the evening we started at 4-poles but no action so we headed to Hot Dog island. I caught a small bass but there was no other action. It seemed our great fishing activity has finally shut down, possibly due to the earlier thunder storm. We decided to go back to 4-poles before we ended our week of fishing. Here is what the poles look like at night.

We kept circling the poles and no fish. Our experience this week taught us that the bass move in and out of the 4-pole area during the day and evening as well as at Hot Dog island. So we would usually move off the area for a while and then come back to fish it again. We called it "reloading the fishing hole". I didn't do much fishing anymore as my casting wrist was very sore. We kept circling the poles waiting for a bass to move in.

Sure enough, Andrew caught a 4.5 pound bass at 8:30 pm.



Then the "magic" happened. At 9:30 pm Andrew caught a 6.3 pound bass which broke his earlier record of 5.5 pounds. Andrew was very excited and I was so happy for him. I'm sure a replica of this fish will be on his wall soon.




At 10pm we called it quits and went in since Andrew needed to pack and go to bed so he could get up at 3am for his drive home.

Today's catch was 9 fish with a total weight of 19.33 pounds.

Our overall total for the 5-days:
Number of bass = 55
Total Weight = 130 pounds
Average weight = 2.4 pounds

Total Miles driven = 34

Not bad for just a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening of fishing. I have never seen this kind of great fishing in the 4-years I have been fishing on Lake Guntersville. It may never happen again but I sure hope it does.

Fishing Week - Day 4 (Tuesday)

I forgot to mention that on Day 3 when Andrew and I caught the two bass at the same time at 4-poles the burglar alarm went off on "Lights Out" for some reason. While we were reeling in our fish the alarm siren was sounding and flood lights were flashing. It was a real spooking feeling.

6:58am: Andrew's first cast at 4-poles got him a 3.4 pound bass.

He also caught several 1-2 pound bass. I caught nothing (boo hoo). Then we headed for "Hot Dog" island. My GPS took us to the best fishing spot and within minutes we were catching fish. Andrew caught 5 nice bass and I caught 2. Then back to 4-pole to wrap up the morning fishing and Andrew picked up 2 more bass. What a morning, 9 bass in just a few hours and only two were mine. Andrew is "The Man".

3 pound bass

3.11 pound bass

In the afternoon Andrew goes down to the dock and does his favorite thing. Bobber fishing, Country Music and beer drinking. He is turning out to be a real Alabama BUBBA!

In the evening we started at 4-pole and I caught 2 bass. Then out two "Hot Dog" island. I caught a nice 5.9 pound bass. Then it seemed like we were catching a bass every 5 minutes; 8 bass total. To finish the evening we went back to 4-poles around 8pm. Andrew caught 3 bass ranging in weight from 3-4 pounds and one smaller one.

Another great day of fishing!!!

Total Bass = 22, Total Weight = 48.5 pounds.

Photos below:

3 pounds



3.11 pounds

5.9 pounds

3.14 pounds

3.12 pounds



3 pounds

Fishing Week - Day 3 (Monday)

6:00am: Andrew and I headed straight to Hot Dog island since it was so productive the night before. Fishing was not as good as the previous evening but Andrew did catch 3 one-pound bass and I caught a 3.75 pound bass as shown below; so all was not lost.

Went back in and had breakfast around 10am. Andrew spent the afternoon on the dock fishing with live shiners, getting a sun tan, and enjoying his music and beer complements of "Lights Out".


That evening I had a dog training class to go to and Andrew came with me. It went well. When we got back home I felt bad that we didn't do any evening fishing so we decided to just go out for a short time around the four poles to fish. It was about 9:15pm, dark and the moon hadn't risen yet. We usually end our fishing at this time so our expectation level was somewhat low.


But then, things got pretty exciting. At 9:35pm I caught a 5.5 pound bass. At 9:50pm Andrew caught a 3.9 pound bass. At 10:15 Andrew caught a 2 pound bass. Then around 10:30 Andrew and I caught 2 bass at the same time. Andrew's fish weight 3.4 pounds and mine weight a whopping 8.7 pounds!!! We were both fighting the fish and each one of us were calling for a net and no one to help. l landed mine first and then helped Andrew get his netted.


The bass were so strong and flipping so much in our hands we both got cuts and scrapings on our thumbs from their tiny teeth. It was painful but FUN!!! Photo's below.

3.9 pounds

5.5 pounds



3.4 pounds

8.7 pounds

8.7 pounds

Don't laugh at my funny headlight. It is a great device when you want to see in the dark and still be able to use both hands to reel in a fish.

In just a little over an hour we caught 5 quality bass by just circling the 4 poles. Each complete circle it seemed a new set of bass moved in. What a night. Now if we had not gone to the dog classes, we probably would have come in around 9pm and missed all the action.

Total fish caught on Monday is 9. Total weight is 30.25 pounds.

Fishing Week Day 2 (Sunday)

Day 2 -- Andrew and I were on the water by 6:30am. We started at 4-poles and Andrew caught a one pounder. Then went to "Hot Dog" island and I caught a one pounder. Then to "Power Line" cove and Andrew caught a 2-3 pounder but it got off at the boat. We went to another area and I picked up a 1.5 pounder. The morning fishing was very slow and we had to do a lot of casting to find the 4 bass we did catch.

Andrew did some dock fishing in the afternoon with no success. It was very hot (90's) but he had a good time anyway with Lights Out nearby playing music and a refrigerator full of BEER.

That evening around 6 pm we headed out to Hot Dog island again and it was HOT and on Fire with bass. Below is 3.5 pound bass Andrew caught there.

He waited a little too long to set the hook and the hook was way down in the mouth; so it took him a little while to get the hook out.

The Bass was release and was OK.

Andrew continued to catch fish at the island and I lost 2 big ones. Later I realized my hook was bent and that was why I wasn't getting a good hook set.

We went back to 4-poles around 7:30pm and Andrew kept catching fish.

Then he hooked up with a 4# 4oz bass.

That Boy is HAPPY!!!

I caught a few small ones and finally hooked into a 3.75 pounder.

It was a very productive day of fishing and our total bag limit for Sunday was 17 bass with a total weight of around 35 pounds of bass. Andrew was the winner today and caught the most and biggest bass. I think it was the colorful swimming trunks he was wearing that attracted all the bass to him.

Fishing Week - Day One (Saturday)

The phone rang at 6:30am on Saturday the 6th. I thought it would be Andrew saying he is now leaving Valdosta, GA for the 6-hour trip to Guntersville. He said "I will be there in 5-minutes"! I said "Your kidding". He said he was so wired up for the trip that he couldn't sleep so he left early.

He met the dogs and Buddy and Max really liked him.

By 9am we were out on the lake fishing. Of course we started at the 4-pole area. Andrew caught a 2 pound bass right off the bat. Before I could get the camera out for a picture he released the bass back in the water.

Next it was my turn and I caught a 3.75 pound bass.

We fished a little longer and then went in so Andrew could take a nap and rest up from the long drive and lack of sleep. We went back out in the evening and tried "Hot dog" Island first. I hooked up with a 4.75 pound bass at 6:20pm.

Then back to the 4-pole area for dusk fishing. We caught 4 more bass ranging from one to 3 pounds.

Our bag for the day was 7 bass with a total weight of 16 pounds. Not bad for a starter day especially right after a cold front.

Stayed tuned for a daily update.

End of May

I'm behind on the blog again.

The most exciting thing that has happened is I have a new grandson. Pamella had her baby on May 28th at 6:15am. His name is Kieran Campbell Brown. He weighed 7# and 10 ounces. You can find out more about him on Pamella's blog.

Last week Max became very ill and stopped eating. I took him in to the vet and he had contracted Coccidiosis. This is an intestinal track infection caused by protozoal parasites. If not treated it can become fatal. He's on medication for 21 days and is feeling much better now and back to himself. I had Buddy tested too and he has a mild case so he is on meds as well.

I pulled the bass boat out on Saturday and spent most of the day cleaning it up as it has been a while since the last cleaning. This is in preparation of Andrew's visit from the 6th through the 12th. We will be fishing day and night for a week!

Last Friday my kitchen sink started leaking, the faucet was leaking and the sprayer didn't work for a long time. I decided to replace the whole works and got a much deeper sink (8.5 inches) and Delta high nozzle faucet. I like it very much. It is kind of weird that a 64 year old man can get excited about a SINK!!

Since my yard is so shaded I cannot grow grass so I usually keep it covered with leaves. But after a few rains the leaves decompose and things are quite mushy. The dogs are real pansies when it comes to walking on wet dirt and when they do their bathroom stuff, they don't walk out to the yard. They stop short and do it in the concrete. So I covered the area with pine-straw. They like that so no more problems with that.

Sunday I needed a break from the dogs and the world so I went fishing and caught 4 bass in about an hour. The biggest was 4 pounds.

That's it for now.