Uhhhhhhhgleeeeeee

I can't say catfish are pretty.  I also can't say I've ever seen one alive that was this ugly and smelled bad too!



Caught a few last weekend, and a few bass. The behemoth eluded me once again.  Trying my hand at making my own lures now.  They fetched me a couple of crappie.  Just gotta work on the colors.

I may be taking a break from fishing for a couple of weeks.  Nah, you know I'll hit a local pond or two instead.

Catfish Weekend

Weird weekend for fishing, comparatively speaking.  I started out by catching a handful of these colorful little guys...

I have been keeping a catfish rig at the end of the pier, trying to land something big.  At one point, we were floating on tubes, and I would periodically glance at the catfish pole to see if anyone was nibbling. It's not so easy to get out of an inner tube, up the few stairs, and down to the end of the pier when the fishing pole starts bouncing, but it was time to try.
I got to end and started reeling.  It was something of significance at the end of my line.  Just as I got it to the top of the water, it flopped around just enough to get itself loose.  NF caught just enough of a glimpse to know I wouldn't be lying about a fish being on the line.  From my vantage point, it was clearly a catfish. I would guess it to be a 3-pounder or so.
That made the day interesting.  I cast out again, to almost the same spot, then reeled in my crappie line, dropped the depth to nearly the lake bottom (it's no deeper than six feet for at least a hundred yards from the pier) and cast that out there too.
Within a couple of hours, I caught four of these guys...

They were all between 2 & 3lbs.  Notice the bobber in the photo? Yep, I caught three of the four catfish on the crappie line with a bobber.  Wacky, but cool. Now I know where to hunt for the big cat.

P asked me to take her out on a jet ski.  Like I would say no! No photos, but I can still hear her saying "Daddieeeee" every time I got on the throttle more than she wanted.

NF also took B, P, and me on a couple of boat rides.



Obviously, she's fan of the photo opp...

Looking forward to an even hotter weekend coming up.  It won't stop me from fishing, to be sure.

Eh...

Still trying to catch the beastly behemoth. This RedEar is not him...

Yep. Still trying...

R.I.P. Garth

You may have read here about the baby gar that I brought home, because I wanted to see how big he might get, and because he was cool.  I had been taking him out to the garage in the evenings so I could catch tiny bugs by the garage lights and feed them to him.  It was awesome watching him attack them from the side, like he was some stealthy little beast stalking his prey.

I left him in the garage one day, all day, and came back to find that the garage got really hot during the day.

I think Garth may have gotten cooked.  So much for being a cool fish.  Saddened by his demise, I will go on trying to catch the behemoth of prior tales in his stead.

Rock 'n' Roll BBQ

I don't get excited about too many concerts, mainly because the majority of concert-goers are a$$holes who think they deserve more than everyone else, even though we paid the same $$ for a ticket. Occasionally, one comes along that makes me say "I have to go see them!"

Fourth of July weekend marked the inaugural Rock 'N' Roll BBQ in Indy. There were three days of concerts, surrounded by booths peddling their award winning Bar-B-Que, depending on what state you are from (shout-out to KCMO!)  Friday was clearly fitting for a BBQ festival in a stadium parking lot.  The Charlie Daniels Band was the headlining act.  Since the Guitar Hero version of Devil Went Down to Georgia is more pleasant to my ear these days, I opted not to go.

Saturday was a much different story.

B & P had not yet experienced a Rock concert, so what better venue for them to enjoy a few bands than Victory Field (Indianapolis Indians) parking lot?



Rev Theory was the first of the bands I was looking forward to seeing. Some throaty metal mixed with a little mainstream rock sound makes them, in my opinion, very fun to listen to, and now exciting to see.

Not only were they awesome on stage, I get to remember the show with the awesome souvenir that was thrown my way...

Saving Abel was next.  They seem to get more radio play, but not having any of their music in my personal collection left me wondering how good they would be.  They absolutely did not disappoint!

The headlining act on this day was one that I had been waiting to see since they released their EP "stuck" back in the early '90's.  The bar-b-que in the parking lot may not have been from Kansas City, but one of my favorite bands is.  Finally, I got to see Puddle of Mudd live.

As rare as it is for me to ignore the d!cks in a crowd and just enjoy the show, it's even more rare for me to know every song in a set list, and still more rare (never) that I like every one of them.  This show, especially for $8 per tic, was as awesome as I had hoped for. I think Wes knew the kids and I were there to see him.

Absolutely the best "first rock show" I could have imagined for the kids. Even though there were examples to point at and say "Don't act like that," there was more than enough cool stuff to encourage them (even me) to try enjoying the experience more often.

Back at ya, Wes!

B's Marching Debut

With the celebrating of this country's independence this weekend, came fireworks, parades, and all kinds of fun. Normally, I would opt for a smaller get-together, or a much more well-known venue to spend time celebrating, but Saturday marked the first of many events where I had an opportunity to see B do his thing with the Tri-West Marching Blue Alliance (Bruins.)

There was not much to see, given that Pittsboro’s population is smaller than the number of students at my high school.  There were plenty of tractors, including some cool looking vintage ones. (Yes, I’m a bit of a redneck.) There were cars with fancy folks like the sheriff waving and throwing candy in an attempt to lure small children into the road. None of these folks could throw a fit, let alone candy to a crowd.

The main attraction, it seemed (certainly for me), was the Tri-West Marching Blue Alliance, including my son, B, for the first time.

They have some pretty cool concepts for the look of the marching band.  Last year (pre-B), they were zombies and used some MJ Thriller stuff to make the show for competitions.  Glad they didn’t have to march in the heat of summer wearing full traditional band uniforms.

I’m not musically inclined, and I get distracted by shiny things easily, so I cannot begin to imaging how tough it is to march in step, wait for your moment to jump into the music, and stay focused on the part you must play, rather than check out all of the people-watching possibilities of a parade.

I may never know what that’s like, but I think B does an awesome job at it.

I got to see B march for the first time with my two favorite ladies.


Well done, B!  Now clean your room.