JOURNAL OF TININTHEWIND

     Yesterday I showed you my little boat, the "ss tininthewind" loaded on the loaner trailer and told you of my plans to trailer to the bridge and fish some crappie.  The plan of course was to take a breather from bass fishing.  The crappie cooperated and I came home with a nice mess----all about 1.75lbs each.  Kathleen layed out the fillets for supper and declared that one crappie each (two fillets) would about do it.

     While crappie fishing using my ultra light spinning rod with 6 lb line I hooked a good fish.  Thinking it was probably a carp I played it out, netted him and weighed him------it was a 8.1 lb bass.  There was a couple fishing near by and they got a kick out of seeing me boat that bad boy.  The mouth was so huge I could have stuck both my fists in it

     Tomorrow the wind is supposed to be stiff----30mph.  I will stay off the main lake but fishing for crappie under the bridge is somewhat sheltered.  Guess where I will be?

Posted by George at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

     I have been Bass Fishing almost everyday since we arrived here in Zapata and the fishing has been unbelievable.  I still have not caught the DD (double digit) that I am looking for as a personal best but I sure have caught a bunch of big bass by anybodies standards.  9.1 is still holding as my personal best.  I have caught a bunch of 14, 15, 16 inchers which make some real nice fillets and we have enjoyed many a meal of fish to date.

     I have been keeping my boat in the water and just fishing the bay and a couple of main lake points just outside the bay but my travels are limited to just my trolling motor.  When the indicator says I only have 50 percent of a charge left in the battery I turn and fish my way back to "home".

     A friend that I made here in Zapata last year when we first visited here has loaned me his golf cart trailer and as you will see in the following pictures my boat fits nicely.  The lights are working and I am anxious to go explore other coves and corners of this lake-----on the American side of course.

     There is a bridge that crosses one of the fingers of water just as you enter Zapata from the South and my friend Dale took me crappie fishing there last year.  The crappie are huge (2 lbs each are common).  The boat is loaded on the trailer and tomorrow morning the "ss tininthewind" and I will go see if we can catch some of those big crappie. 

     It will be good to fish with lighter tackle for the crappie as my arms and upper body muscles are sore from all the bass fishing I have been doing------It is a "good" sore though and I promise you I am not complaining.

Posted by George at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

     We are on site at Shady Haven RV Resort, in Zapata Texas.  My how things change in one year.  We arrived to find the Lake 20 feet lower than last year.  This Texas drought is having a profound effect on reservoir levels throughout the State.  The picture above is me standing down near the (sitting on dry land) boat docks locking back up toward the top of the boat ramp and just left of center in the picture you can see the nose of the "Tininthewind" sticking out from site 128.  Last year I had my little blow up boat parked in the water just in front of the "Tininthewind".

     We knew when we left the old home area of Wisconsin/Iowa that we would be heading in to some hot dry weather but "hot" is an understatement.  It has been in the high 90's since our arrival with somewhat high humidity.  We did arrive in a thunderstorm with heavy rain so setting up while getting a warm water shower was quite interesting.

     I didn't quite have everything arranged with out site and coach but priorities are priorities and I just had to get my "Sea Eagle Foldcat Boat" inflated and on the water.  Within the first day of fishing and in fact still in site of the dock I caught the nice 7.2 lb bass you see in the following picture.  This is a new personal best for me as far as size goes and I expect to break that mark easily in the coming days.

     With the Lake 20' low the landscape sure looks different and I will post a group of pictures here to give you some perspective of what it looks like.  At the end of the docks there is about one slip still in the water (1 foot deep) and my little boat is able to handle that.  You will note I am the only one there as everyone else is having to trailer their boats.  I am not sure what I will do should the water drop even further as I do not have the ability to trailer my little rig.  Time will tell.

      If anyone has more rain than they need please send it this way.

Posted by George at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)