Grumpy Old Men — Texas Edition, 106 Fish, 12 Sept. 2011, Stillhouse Hollow






Dick (left, a.k.a. Mr. Snickers) and Claude (right, a.k.a. Mr. Grumpy) show off a set of healthy white bass taken with slabs out of ~37 feet of water.


Caution: Some of the following MAY be exaggerated for humorous purposes …

With the excellent fishing we’ve been experiencing lately spurred on by the season’s first drop in water temperature, I wanted to get long-time friends and co-workers in ministry Dick Chapin and Claude Carson out on the water to experience this fishing first hand.


We met around 6:45a, not because that was the best time to meet, but because, Dick and Claude are grumpy old men (G.O.M.) who think that if on time is good, than earlier is better. Let me explain … I have been fishing 3 to 4 half-day trips a week all summer, and with the stable weather we’ve enjoyed, the fish are readily patterned. I know when they’ll start feeding and when they’ll stop. So, I asked the two of them to meet me around 6:50 – leaving us plenty of time to do all we need to do and be on our first fishing area by sunrise. The grumpy old men informed me they’d be there at 6:45, so, when I arrived at 6:20 to prepare, there the G.O.M. were, no doubt already grumpy that I wasn’t there sooner!!

Well, I thought it’d be best to assess the G.O.M.’s casting abilities before heading out after the fish, so, I armed each with a spinning rod, made sure the handles were on the correct side, and we did some practice casting. Well, Claude got a tangle, cut his line, and sent my lure to Davy Jones’ locker because, in typical G.O.M. fashion, he did not listen when I suggested that he close the bail by hand instead of using the spinning reel’s handle. So, as I fixed his spinning reel, he evidently got grumpy about how long it was taking me and (intentionally?) spilled his sweet tea so as to make my just-cleaned boat deck nice and sticky. Now while all this was going on, Dick, also in classic G.O.M. fashion, snickered loudly enough to be overheard by Claude, which made Claude even grumpier. When I finally got everything retied, I looked over and noted that Claude was taking off his cowboy boots and his socks. Dick asked him if he thought that was a courteous thing to do, and Claude shrugged the comment off. Not one to be shrugged off, Dick said, “Hmmm, I thought we were going to use artificial lures, Claude, but there you are prepping the stink bait.” Dick then snickered at his own joke, and Claude got even grumpier.

So, with that, Mr. Grumpy, Mr. Snickers, and I were now sufficiently mentally prepared to go catch some fish!! I found out that G.O.M. require a certain level of grumpiness to exist so as to function normally, and we were evidently now at this level. As we got to our first area, the fish were just starting to pop bait on the surface. I explained that we’d need to make a cast beyond the fish, reel the baits through the fish while pointing our rods at the fish, and reel with a moderate retrieve. I did this and caught a fish. Dick did this and caught a fish. Claude pointed his rod up at around 11 o’clock and did not catch a fish — now he was even grumpier. He claimed at this point that he was cursed. And so the trip went … for 4 more hours!!! But, what’s 4 hours in the big scheme of things?? I’ve known these fellows for well over a decade and it’s always been like this … in fact, you’d know somethings wrong if they weren’t fussing at one another!!


Note: None of the following has been exaggerated…

Now to be honest, neither Dick nor Claude are grumpy, but they are both old and they are both men, so, two outta three ain’t bad, especially in a fish story, which, after all, this is.

Actually, we had a great trip and did get to chuckle and poke at one another good-naturedly now and then. Once again today, Area 910 provided the first topwater action I spotted anywhere, and there were abundant quantities of gamefish and bait here, however, the winds were nearly slack at sunrise and that always means a less intense feed until winds increase. We did all boat a few largemouth from out of the visible schools of fish feeding in the area, all on swimbaits. When it became apparent that today’s topwater bite was going to be a soft one due to light winds, we went searching for bottom-hugging white bass instead.

We found four distinct, large populations of white bass from between 35 and 48 feet of water, at Areas 912, 913, 914, and 915. Each group was holding at or less than 3 feet off the bottom. We worked shad-imitating slabs through these fish in sizes roughly approximating the size of the bait we saw being chased and being regurgitated by the fish we were landing — about 2.25 to 3.5 inches.

We boated a total of 106 fish today, including 8 largemouth bass and 98 white bass.


TALLY = 106 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:45a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 76F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~81.5F

Wind: Winds were light and variable, finally picking up from the WNW by around 7mph.

Skies: Skies were fair and cloudless.