My fishing in 2012 was affected by a wedding and low water. I only fished 48 times, the lowest total since I retired.  The pattern of the location of my fishing trips changed drastically too.  Some of the main lakes from the past years were visited only once or twice. Monticello and Wolf Lake fell off the map almost. Monticello dealt the only zero. I fished the “Private hole” 18 times, almost half the trips and over half the fish came from there. Lake Ferguson yielded fewer fish than usual probably due to the low water and due to my daughter’s wedding June 2nd , before which the lake was yielding a lot of fish. Lake Lee yielded the FOYear, a 6 – 0, caught June 20th. My average per trip was 14 1/4 fish compared to over 18  last year. The trips to catch a fish over 4 was 1.71 as compared to 2.16 last year, better this year. Last year in the wrap up as I looked forward to the new year,  I said I wanted to learn to fish with 1. a drop shot  2. a suspended jerk bait 3. a Carolina rig and 4. an Alabama rig. I half way succeeded as I did catch fish on the Carolina rig and a suspending jerk bait. I did not even break out the Alabama rig or a drop shot. That leaves me a couple to master for 2013.

I received this photo today by email.

Mickey went to Meridian to visit a brother and fish in his lake.  When I inquired of the weight, “about 5 pounds” was the answer from his brother.  The picture is very familiar, Mickey holding the FOD or a large bass. Out of curiosity I went back into my Bitespot photos and found 24 similar ones. It was familiar for a reason.

After getting chased to the truck by rain at 8:00 from a deer hunt, I made a run to the private hole to check out the fish. Fishing started at 11:00 and started with grinners. They have taken over my favorite place in the entire hole which I went to right off the bat. Caught 2 grinners there, one on  a shaky head and one on a Booyah.  Chased off by the grinners, I started to search for some bass. Upon seeing one make a move on a bream close to the bank, I put the trolling motor on high and motored over to try it out. Out came the FOD, a 5 – 3 on the Booyah. Shortly afterward a 2 – 13 volunteered. ” I’ve got it figured out now “, I thought but it was not to be.  I tried the shaky head but it didn’t help me find any either. It seemed the fish were next to or right off of cover, of which, there is a diminishing amount as the water continues to fall. The first two were out on a naked point however. No pattern whatsoever, hence the title of this post. After making the first circle I tried my favorite spot again only to , again, come up with another grinner. The grinner today were particularly lucky, except for the first one. The first one, unfortunately for him, got a full dose of anesthetic, whereas the others came unhooked the second before it was administered. I was rared back and ready to strike, just waiting for the right angle when they came unhooked. The size of the bass was good. Of the 8 I caught, there were 3 others beside the FOD that were over 3 and a smattering of 2 – 13’s as usual.

We went to Houston to a friends wife’s 60th birthday party that was held in the Museum of Natural History in the hall of the dinosaurs since she had turned into one. Not really, she is very cute still.   Also in that museum is a butterfly center. You walk in and the  beautiful butterflys are flying all around you.  I pulled out my phone camera and went to work. The first one is a photo that came up that is of one of our hackberry butterflys that was sitting on my arm this summer.

  It is followed by some from the center

   

 

The blue one and the one just above it  are the same one except in the lower one the wings are opened to reveal the beautiful blue.

  Gayden called this one the camouflage butterfly.

This large iguana looked like a plastic toy. They put it out in the sun to get it’s body warmed up and it only would move if you crossed it with your shadow. This last guy was watching over the birthday party that night.

There were many different complete skeletons in the hall. They were just amazing .  Remember, you can click on the photo to make it larger.