Here I am getting the boat ready to head out and go fishing. It was still pretty dark didn’t want to waste the early sun on the water.

Just trying to take advantage of the weather. Never know how many more nice sunny days we will have before it gets cold.

Most of the time i really dislike catching this kind of fish.

It didn’t bother me catching this one. It actually wasn’t as slimy and stinky as a sucker typically is. It was a lot of fun reeling in. I had cast a worm way down stream about as far as i could. When it sucked up my worm the rod bent pretty good.  Made me remember that it is pretty important to secure the pole to the boat and not take my eyes off it too long. The current is so fast that its a a chore to pull a good sized fish into the current.

This is one of the larger channel cats I have caught this year. Its good sized for the area we fish but still compaired to cats I have caught in previous fishing seasons its on the smaller side.

Jason Caught The Big One.

A 10 Pound Anchor.

This was actually weird because he casted down stream so something must have pulled his line under the boat. Anyway it was the biggest thing he caught all day.

Jason Really struggled reeling these bad boys in. On the left its a really small channel cat and on the left is a small sheep head. He really didn’t have too much luck fishing yesterday. But that happens to anyone that fished from time to time.

This is unbelievable.

I cast my lure into a school of minnows and reeled in kinda quickly. I couldn’t believe this 2 inch or so minnow actually bit my spoon. I still cant really believe it. I think it might have been more of the luck but it was so perfectly hooked in the mouth.

I think this little fishy will hold up in my record books as the smallest catch on a spoon forever.

Picture of me getting the boat ready to head out on the river. Not sure how many more nice warm days left in this year so I have been making every attempt to get as much fishing in as I possibly can when its sunny. I don’t think the cooling weather will keep me totally away from fishing just wont be out for as long of periods of time.

Jason and I were able to do a little boating and fishing this morning. We started out around 10:00 AM trying to decide if the boat motor would run. I decided to dry pull it and make sure it wasn’t screwed up and it fired off first pull. So we loaded the boat up and connected it to my truck put it in the water and all went great.

We headed upstream so that if the motor decided not to work we could use the current to get us close to the boat launch. I really didn’t want to paddle it back AGAIN ! ! !

We decided to stop at a spot where the surface water was smooth and glass like. Then we dropped anchor and tried to decide what bait to use. I set up my first pole with chicken liver and cast it out. Then I cast for a few mins with a twister but with the current as strong as it was casting was not working well. So I baited that pole up with a worm.

It didn’t take long and both Jason and I had bites. I caught the first fish a good sized catfish you can see it in the first picture kinda. Jason is as good at taking pictures as he is at catching fish. So the pix didn’t turn out the best. hehe.

Then after I knew the liver worked I wanted to try some stinky shrimp that has been sealed up and sitting in the garage for about a week or longer. Wow, was that shrimp rank ! ! ! We both did have bites on the shrimp but i think it was the smaller cats just nibbling or something like that maybe they couldn’t fit their mouths over the shrimp.

When we used worms it seams that the sheep head gobble them up so i prefer to not use worms at all.

After fishing that spot for a couple hours we decided we wanted to try a spot in calmer water near what we call the PIT. On the way to the PIT we headed under the train bridge and we both knew it was shallow but didn’t realize how shallow in some places it was. I was driving and the boat was at a slow almost idol and it jerked up. I knew right away i had hit a rock or the bottom or something so as quick as I could think I tilted the motor up so it was just barley in the water.

Well that didn’t do the trick the damage was already done. We had sheered the sheer pin. Jason has delt with changing the pin in the water multiple times but it was my first time to replace one without dry land under my feet.

We accomplished it ! ! It wasn’t as difficult as it could have been but it still wasn’t all that easy either. So after all that we decided to head back to the boat launch and take the boat out for the day. I think we will try to go again very soon.

This is Grandpa cutting up watermelon with the most precious Grandkids.

Oh the fun! The kids had watching and helping Grandpa cut up the watermelon.

Austin and Taylor were eating it as fast as Grandpa was carving the melon.

After all the cutting was finished Melissa, Jason, the Kids, And I enjoyed watermelon until our bellies ached.

Grandpa put all the time and effort into cutting the watermelon and he doesn’t even enjoy watermelon. He did it just for everyone else.

I Never imagined a praying mantis actually being this big. I don’t know if you can really tell its size from the pix i took but i think with the size of the toe of my shoe you can at least guess. I wish I would have taken a picture of it next to a tape measure.

I have found a few of these in the past but never one anywhere near this size. I also think this might be a different kind. I did a little research and I found that there are 20 or so different kinds of Mantis that live in the US. I didn’t take the time to figure out details as it really isn’t that important to me. But if anyone knows please post specifics as a comment.

I was walking in the backyard and noticed this mantis on the bush. I wanted to show Austin and Taylor so i considered catching it with my hands. Then after looking at it for a few seconds. I wasn’t sure if it could maybe hurt me. So I used a plastic container to avoid touching it.