This morning I went to Beaverdam with Richard. We didn’t even crank the motor, starting fishing right from the dock. One of the first things Richard said was he liked seeing the spiderwebs between the cypress knees because it showed no one had been along casting to knock them down. It just shows, if you pay attention you can learn something every day. It was a great observation. We were fishing with a baby Paca Craw with the claws dipped in garlic dye, his was Texas rigged and mine was on a screw on shaky head.  It was not far before we caught our first fish. They bit pretty evenly all morning. Casting was short range. Richard uses all spinning gear and is adept at putting it close, especially with a backhand snap cast. I on the other hand was not as accurate as I should have been but the fish helped me out by following the bait out almost to the boat, many times hitting almost right under the boat. The boat seemed not to bother them although the water was only 2 or 3 feet deep, but not very clear. I also was using a short spinning rod and yellow 15 pound Power Pro which was good for setting the hook.  Fishing along, we saw a wasp nest 8 to 10 inches in diameter just covered with those big black wasps. I shuddered to think about running into the limb with that nest. We were weaving in and out of the cypress trees bumping trees and brushing limbs. I became hung right next to a tree and as we moved in to free the bait a couple of wasps came from nowhere. Then I saw the nest.  I took off my hat for anti aircraft protection and it worked until we were out of range. When I tried to figure out how I was going to retrieve my bait, it was already free. In the brushes with the trees we acquired a hitch hiker.

A big fat preying mantis riding on Richard’s hat.  They eat wasps. Where was he when we needed him. It was a good day with a breeze most of the day, good conversation, and steady action.  We ended up with 20 bass, no biggies but each one stretched our line.