G3_Guy
Well-known member
Well I came home Friday from work to find that my wife had pulled a good one on me... As an early Father's Day gift, she had planned a weekend at the lake with the kids at a cabin up in Muddy Creek that some friends of the family own. As I pulled in the driveway, she was almost finished loading up the suburban with all of our stuff and the kids couldn't wait to tell me the good news. Needless to say I was completely surprised... she had already purchased a new cricket bucket and 200 crickets for the trip. We finished loading everything up, locked up the house and off we went. I had to make a pit stop by Seymour Bait & Tackle to get some extra hooks and sinkers. From there we went on to Sevieriville to get some food to take up for supper and to meet up with another couple and their 11month old son from our church who were going to spend Friday night with us. We arrived at the cabin around 7:30 and the boys were so excited about fishing that they didn't even eat... we "had to go" straight to the water.
Once we got down to the lake, my oldest (Cameron) started out strong and had 3 on the bank before my youngest (Colvin) and I could catch one. We quickly made a strong comeback though as we fished until dark. Both boys caught a small catfish each and several bluegill. We ascended the hill around 9:15pm, took our showers and finally set down to eat our dinner.
We stayed up talking with our friends and made our way to to bed around 11:30.
The next morning my oldest son started his on personal version of "Are we there yet"... Around 6am I felt a tap on my hand and as I opened my eyes, it was my oldest son staring at me, this silent glare was followed by those words every dad should love to hear... "Dad, can we go fishing now?" I was still half asleep as I said, "Not now son, dad needs to sleep a few more minutes". Apparently he took this literally... as we repeated this same process every 15 minutes for the next hour and a half until I finally got up around 7:30. My wife and friend's wife had traveled back into town that morning to work at a church function, so that left just the guys to fend for themselves. I fixed pancakes for breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen before heading down to the lake around 9:00am.
The area we were fishing was well shaded during the morning hours and it was a perfect place to be fishing. My youngest kicked off the morning with a bluegill. Then my friend Travis and his son Eli followed that up with their first fish... a nice sized bluegill. This was Eli's first fish ever... both dad and son were very excited and it was good to get to share in that moment with them. We continued to catch bluegill for the next hour. Finally the little one was getting tired so his dad took him up to the cabin to sleep. Me and the boys stayed down and kept at it. It was around 11am when the first big bite happened... I was helping my youngest when I tossed his cricket across the little cove and before the float could even set up it went out of site. I knew right away that this wasn't a bluegill because it started pulling and pulling hard. My youngest was begging me to let him wind it in but I was seriously concerned that the opposite might happen... it might drag him in. I fought it for a few moments more and finally got it to the bank... It was good 2lb mudcat. This was the beginning of an extremely fun 30 minute period. Within two casts my oldest hooked up on a monster (for him anyways)... he fought and fought and fought and finally got it to the bank. It was 3+lb mudcat. He was so excited... From there, Colvin caught another bluegill and then Cameron proceeded to catch two more good sized catfish, one was another mud cat and the last one was a blue cat. It was apparent that the catfish spawning season had began as these fish were two feet deep and eating our crickets up. We yelled up to Travis a couple of different times to show him the fish the boys had caught and as he came out the second time, he asked if we had seen that big bird sitting on the rail of deck which was eating all the locusts. We had not but my oldest went walking around the bank and started yelling... "dad, there it is... there it is". I made my way around and found that it was an extremely tame Red-Tailed Hawk. He was sitting on the deck rail eating a locust with no real concern about my friend who was 15 feet away or the screaming kids down at the side of the lake. We fished a little while longer and caught a few more Bluegill when our wives arrived back from the church. I brought the boys up to eat lunch and as we made our way to the door, I noticed our new friend, the red-tailed hawk, was perched there in the tree right beside the cabin. I walked inside and got my camera and took several pics as he just sat there looking at us... no joking I could have thrown a rock and hit him he was so close... 15 - 20' tops. He was taring those cicadas up. We ate lunch, lounged around, chased cicadas and made a couple of more short trips to the water where Ashley caught her first fish of the day... it was a nice sized bluegill. This lasted on and off until about 5pm when our friends had to leave.
Around 6:00pm the wife and I took the boys back down to the lake as they were ready for some more fishing. My wife caught her first Bluegill of the trip and the boys caught several more as well. I sent my youngest back up to the cabin with his mother as he was getting tired. Cameron and I stayed and fished until we ran out of crickets around dark. We then headed up to take our showers and get ready for bed.
We got up early Sunday morning and headed to church. After church we came back to the cabin and just relaxed all afternoon before packing up all of our stuff and returning to church Sunday night and then on back home afterwards.
God was certainly good to us this weekend and always for that matter... It was good to get to spend time with friends and family. I'd like to thank the Lord for blessing me with a wife who would take the time to plan such a trip and for two sons who seem to love to fish as much as I do. If you're having a bad Monday... take just a moment to stop and think about all God has done for you.
I've included a link below to a small slide show of some (not all) of the pics and a link to the photo album where you can see all the pics from our weekend. I hope you enjoy!
God Bless & Good Fishing!
Slideshow:
Photo Album:
https://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z136/G3_Guy/Fishing%20Pics/TN%20-%20Douglas/MAY%2030%202008/?start=all
Once we got down to the lake, my oldest (Cameron) started out strong and had 3 on the bank before my youngest (Colvin) and I could catch one. We quickly made a strong comeback though as we fished until dark. Both boys caught a small catfish each and several bluegill. We ascended the hill around 9:15pm, took our showers and finally set down to eat our dinner.
We stayed up talking with our friends and made our way to to bed around 11:30.The next morning my oldest son started his on personal version of "Are we there yet"... Around 6am I felt a tap on my hand and as I opened my eyes, it was my oldest son staring at me, this silent glare was followed by those words every dad should love to hear... "Dad, can we go fishing now?" I was still half asleep as I said, "Not now son, dad needs to sleep a few more minutes". Apparently he took this literally... as we repeated this same process every 15 minutes for the next hour and a half until I finally got up around 7:30. My wife and friend's wife had traveled back into town that morning to work at a church function, so that left just the guys to fend for themselves. I fixed pancakes for breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen before heading down to the lake around 9:00am.
The area we were fishing was well shaded during the morning hours and it was a perfect place to be fishing. My youngest kicked off the morning with a bluegill. Then my friend Travis and his son Eli followed that up with their first fish... a nice sized bluegill. This was Eli's first fish ever... both dad and son were very excited and it was good to get to share in that moment with them. We continued to catch bluegill for the next hour. Finally the little one was getting tired so his dad took him up to the cabin to sleep. Me and the boys stayed down and kept at it. It was around 11am when the first big bite happened... I was helping my youngest when I tossed his cricket across the little cove and before the float could even set up it went out of site. I knew right away that this wasn't a bluegill because it started pulling and pulling hard. My youngest was begging me to let him wind it in but I was seriously concerned that the opposite might happen... it might drag him in. I fought it for a few moments more and finally got it to the bank... It was good 2lb mudcat. This was the beginning of an extremely fun 30 minute period. Within two casts my oldest hooked up on a monster (for him anyways)... he fought and fought and fought and finally got it to the bank. It was 3+lb mudcat. He was so excited... From there, Colvin caught another bluegill and then Cameron proceeded to catch two more good sized catfish, one was another mud cat and the last one was a blue cat. It was apparent that the catfish spawning season had began as these fish were two feet deep and eating our crickets up. We yelled up to Travis a couple of different times to show him the fish the boys had caught and as he came out the second time, he asked if we had seen that big bird sitting on the rail of deck which was eating all the locusts. We had not but my oldest went walking around the bank and started yelling... "dad, there it is... there it is". I made my way around and found that it was an extremely tame Red-Tailed Hawk. He was sitting on the deck rail eating a locust with no real concern about my friend who was 15 feet away or the screaming kids down at the side of the lake. We fished a little while longer and caught a few more Bluegill when our wives arrived back from the church. I brought the boys up to eat lunch and as we made our way to the door, I noticed our new friend, the red-tailed hawk, was perched there in the tree right beside the cabin. I walked inside and got my camera and took several pics as he just sat there looking at us... no joking I could have thrown a rock and hit him he was so close... 15 - 20' tops. He was taring those cicadas up. We ate lunch, lounged around, chased cicadas and made a couple of more short trips to the water where Ashley caught her first fish of the day... it was a nice sized bluegill. This lasted on and off until about 5pm when our friends had to leave.
Around 6:00pm the wife and I took the boys back down to the lake as they were ready for some more fishing. My wife caught her first Bluegill of the trip and the boys caught several more as well. I sent my youngest back up to the cabin with his mother as he was getting tired. Cameron and I stayed and fished until we ran out of crickets around dark. We then headed up to take our showers and get ready for bed.
We got up early Sunday morning and headed to church. After church we came back to the cabin and just relaxed all afternoon before packing up all of our stuff and returning to church Sunday night and then on back home afterwards.
God was certainly good to us this weekend and always for that matter... It was good to get to spend time with friends and family. I'd like to thank the Lord for blessing me with a wife who would take the time to plan such a trip and for two sons who seem to love to fish as much as I do. If you're having a bad Monday... take just a moment to stop and think about all God has done for you.
I've included a link below to a small slide show of some (not all) of the pics and a link to the photo album where you can see all the pics from our weekend. I hope you enjoy!
God Bless & Good Fishing!
Slideshow:
Photo Album:
https://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z136/G3_Guy/Fishing%20Pics/TN%20-%20Douglas/MAY%2030%202008/?start=all
