Hooray for Vacation!

So I had to work today, but as of noon-ish I am on vacation for the next week. I am DVR'ing most of the World Cup matches (congrats USA on the tough draw with England) and I plan on getting up early just about everyday to go fishing.

I really want to go the next few days to at least practice a bit before open season on bass Wednesday. Up until then it is catch and release only. Wednesday we are trying to go to the beach so the first "keeper fish" may have to wait until Thursday. I do want to try a couple of recipes this week and see if for one thing bass tastes any good. If it taste terrible I guess I will just have to be a catch and release guy. There are about a thousand ways you can fish; different species, different lures, fly or reel, you get the idea. Basically in the interest of sanity I have been studying bass lures and techniques only and if anyone else jumps on the hook we'll worry about it then.

Tonight we have a Muskrats game. After a nice start the home team has slipped to 4-3 after yesterday's loss and is in fourth place. Tonight the Musky's take on the Gulls a team they trail in the standings. Fourth place in the division would still make the playoffs but with a short season of 42 games one wants to avoid digging to deep a hole.

More School versus More Fishing

So school is tedious, I really should have studied and stayed in school when I was 19. Try having a full time job (for which I am grateful), a preschooler, volunteer in the community, all while essentially being a full time student. Sometimes my life makes me a little tired. Anyway I have three more classes, one of which is half over and I will have my bachelor's degree in September. Then the big question that I still haven't decided conclusively is whether I should go back for the MBA. Really the three choices are go back to school immediately, take a year off (which worked out to ten years last time), or decide I'm happy with the B.S. and be done with it (does anyone else find it humorous that I will have a degree in B.S.)?

Going back for the MBA at Plymouth State may be useful professionally and I would like to have the knowledge if money and time were no object but money and time are objects and I only have so much of both. Conversely, what I really want to do is relax. Go to work, do the best I can, and when I come

home at the end of the day I want to veg out and watch mindless television, or go fishing. Spend more time working on my Texas rigging and less time thinking about public revenue sources and the privatization of services. Does that make me Tom Sawyer?

Really Texas rigging is an important life skill, because as you can see from the illustration by getting the hook entirely inside

the worm you won't get the hook stuck on stumps and rocks and things. An exposed hook might be a little easier to catch a fish but not if you keep getting the damned thing stuck in the weeds.

Family Time

So as a salaried manager I am expected to be at work whenever needed which is not necessarily open to close every day but in a small office that is in transition it's pretty close. I enjoy my new job immensely but like anyone I enjoy the opportunity to get out a couple of hours early and catch up with the family. Yesterday was my early day, leaving at around 3:30, I am open to close the rest of the week including Saturday and I have an after hours meeting tonight in a community near work. As I move into the professional ranks, it becomes increasingly important to balance work / life activities and remember to make a little time for what matters.

So yesterday afternoon we packed up a picnic and went down to Opeechee Park. Opeechee is nice because they have picnic facilities, playground facilities, and you can fish a little as well. Here's where the trouble started, on just the third day using my fishing pole the nob on top of my reel simply fell off mid cast and for the life of me I couldn't find it. The real then essentially was a big useless spool of thread. Say what you want about Wal-Mart but with no receipt or evidence that I even purchased the pole there I walked out with a new fishing pole in 15 minutes without a hassle. Which is good, because I go on vacation next week and it would be tough to fish with the Spidey pole everyday for a week.

Aside from my fishing debacles we had a great time, picnic, playground, and a quick stop at Dairy Queen after our detour to Wal-Mart (and yes I am familiar with the parking at Dairy Queen).

The Fish Story

For the first time in my life I, with my own two hands, have captured the elusive fish. This morning at around six I caught a very modest Largemouth Bass (for the totally uninitiated Largemouth Bass refers to the size of the mouth not the fish). He was about 7" and maybe a pound or two at best. Look don't laugh, I've only been fishing like three weeks and until yesterday I have been using a three-foot Spider-man pole. I have left the Spidey pole for the boy and upgraded to a Wal-Mart special, I bought a low end Ugly Stick by Shakespeare, stock line 6-lb test, a black night crawler lure, and some chartreuse Power Bait. I guess my personality is that I could care less about something for thirty years but if I am going to try it and get into it I really want to learn and understand the activity. So in the last three weeks I have actually done a lot of reading and research, basically learning how to fish.

The funny part is that I was so stunned to actually catch the fish that I was frantically scrambling to grab my little state magazine with pictures to figure out what I had, then I knew I had to let him go (Bass are catch and release until June15 for spawning). Then I was frantically trying to figure out how to get the stupid hook out of the guys mouth, Renee advised me to put a pare of pliers in the tackle box (I love that my wife is brilliant, could you imagine spending the rest of your life with an idiot). In the meantime I essentially used the finger sweep method to pull the hook out of the fish's mouth (thank you Army first aid training). Then I was able to toss him back and my prayers were answered as he swam away safely. I really didn't want to be a criminal the first time I caught a fish. The picture is of a largemouth bass (not mine, same idea but mine was a lot smaller and you know, not flying) the health and safety of our sporting friend was my first priority so I have no photographic evidence of my embarrassing catch (maybe next time).

Rain or Shine

4:30 At the risk of ending up as a drowned rat, I am getting ready to go fishing by myself for the first time. Saturday morning is the time that I have so that's when I am going to go. I am just getting up and getting ready now so I am still hoping the storm will pass over by the time I get out to the lake. We'll see how it goes. I picked up a low end rod and reel combo at Wal-Mart and a few more lures from Strike King (they look like big fat black worms). Anyway I hope everyone has a great Saturday but my plan is to get a couple of hours on the lake before the boy wakes up so I have to go.

And congratulations to the Muskrats who won game one and put on a great show, on the field and off.

7:00 So I held off a little bit for the lightning to pass and went out at about 5:15 I got a good hour and a half in with moderate to heavy rains but when the lightning returned at quarter of seven I said that's about enough of that. I might be foolish but not that foolish. Although of the four of five people out that early in the rain there was one guy who stayed right out in his aluminum boat during the lightning without batting an eye. In fairness, he may have batted an eye there's no way to tell for sure. Maybe the reason why I can't catch a fish is that I'm not committed enough.