The jug fishin’ buds in their bib overhauls.
Heavy rain kept us from casting the jugs for the second evening in a row. Note that both Oscar and Poco are showing signs of anxiety because of the storm that is in progress.
We had lunch today at Little Italy in Glenwood. The fettuccini Alfredo was superb !
Pete will leave out for the Bluebonnet rally down in Texas right after breakfast in the morning.
All photos in this blog entry taken by EARTHDANCER IMAGES.
Last night was the first night of the full moon. Our catch went well this morning. We had two nice large channel catfish, four opelousas catfish and one blue catfish.
The large blue channel cats weighed fourteen pounds each. Here is a look at them.
One of the channel cat’s had traveled several miles down the lake towards Chimney rock.
Cleaning fish was a bit of a chore this morning, but the yield of so many pretty fish fillets made it worth while.
The Mothership has arrived ! Our friends Chuck and Geri Hajek came to Lake Greeson from Apalachicola Florida. They are camped just across the street from us. Here is a look at the Mothership.
A friend out in TorC New Mexico made the grapics.
They are also Escapees.
Cool matching graphics on the Truck and the fifth wheel.
After picking up the jugs this morning, we spread breakfast at their campsite.
Geri and Oscar in front of the mothership.
Friends from down on Lake Millwood will be arriving Friday and Pete will be leaving on Thursday. And so it goes at jugfest 2011, friends and family coming and going almost daily, as their busy lives permit. Got a couple of days ? Come fish with us !
GOOD MORNING LAKE GREESON ! Loud and clear it rang out over our FRS radio base station. It was 0600hrs., the usual revile time. The various camping trailers began to check in and get ready to go pick up the jugs with the night’s catch.
Family Radio Service. You know, those little hand held radios that come in so handy for lots of things.
Whether we are out in the boat, Pete is out in his kayak, walking the dogs around camp, or watching Bumpy Springtime weather, these radios are just the ticket.
As we located and recovered the last jug that we had cast the evening before, Chuck retrieves his radio from this pocket and says, “we’re heading in, we have them all picked up”. Geri says, “ Ok, I’ll put the bacon on !”
Here is a look at our set up.
The small handheld radios on the left are in their charger and take up little room there or in a hiker’s pocket.
The base station, on the right stays permanently mounted on the wall of the office slide and is always on channel 7, with no “pl” tone for privacy.
We also use the radios daily when out in Colorado managing a campground. Often times Betty will be at one end of a 50 site campground and I will be at the other. They have proved to be a great safety and management tool !
It has been windy for a couple of days now, making casting and recovering the jugs difficult. The National Weather Service had put out lake wind advisories, but we had a plan to be able to cast the jugs.
Pete took this photo of Betty and I on one of the beautiful calm mornings.
We avoided the wide expanses of open water where the wind driven swells were large and made for rough boating . Instead we traveled to a area that we hadn’t cast the jugs yet, by staying in the lee of the islands . We managed to get the jugs put out alright, but it wasn’t a pretty thing.
Recovering the jugs the next morning by the same route, we were once again damp from lake spray, and cold to boot. The jugs were tangled, hung up and driven up into shallow water. Yet, we had two good fish on.
We kept a very nice channel catfish, but photographed and put a 24 pound blue catfish back in the lake. A fish that size can really thrash a crappie boat’s live well ! Here is a look.
Here is another look at the pretty blue catfish, taken just before I returned it to the lake.
Riding in a spray washed boat can cause a guy to have to dry even his backside at the fire !
This photo was taken by Pete after a different wet seat episode !
It was a wonderful evening when we cast the jugs just before sunset. The lake was absolutely slick, except for an occasional light breeze that hardly “troubled” the surface of the lake.
Here is a look as Betty baits up the hooks with a bream, and Pete casts the jugs.
Carefully the baited hook is passed from Betty to Pete.
Pete is in mid cast, note the hook is in his right hand as the 1 ounce egg sinker is swinging up to the front, slightly behind his hand. His left hand is ready to pitch the jug at the right time for the line to land on the lake surface fully deployed
Pete has been doing this with us for several years now, and has a smooth cast that almost never lands tangled up.
After completing the cast, we slowly idle back down the line of jugs to make sure they are set right and to see if we have something on a line before heading back to camp.
Pete took this photo of a young buzzard as we picked up one of the bait traps, before beginning the cast.
Here is Pete’s lake surface view of the Boat and jugs. The camera sure gives a good look at the very calm lake surface.
Here is a short video of a jug being cast.
During a fishing trip, some repairs need to be made, but with larger catfish, even unlimited class tackle needs some repair.
We are constantly changing our line set up to meet current needs. Some things we try, work, some don’t.
For example, this bank sinker tangles up in nearly anything it comes in contact with. Even the bait fish can foul it until a feeding catfish can’t be hooked.
But this egg sinker doesn’t hardly ever tangle up. This set up will often times pass through a brush pile with no hang up.
As we recover the jugs, we turn the ones that need repair, with the cap towards the outside.
Fresh hooks and new sinkers are in order.
After the storm, all hatches are open to facilitate drying out.
We put the live holding box up on the shore for the storm.
After our recent storm, the water in the cockpit was deep enough that the bottom tray of the tackle box was full of water this morning !
When a major storm event threatens, we feel that information is our best defense. Here is the way we were monitoring last evening:
In the photo, is five information sources that we use, often times simultaneously. AM/FM radio, computer live weather radar, cell phone lice weather radar, television live weather radar and radio reference.com scanner feed.
Some times it is too much to listen to all at one time. And, sometimes one or more sources drop out because of the weather.
We knew it was coming, we heard it on the TV and FM radio, as well as the weather radio. We decided not to cast the jugs in the evening because of the storms intensity. Since the jugs float free they are easily scattered by high winds.
As we looked at the live weather radar on our smart phone, we could judge the speed of it’s approach.
We knew that our time around the campfire would be limited and that Pete wouldn’t have time to play the Native American Flute or the Penny whistle for us. He has a new large diameter flute that has the richest sound and is a marvelous thing to hear around an evening campfire.
For portability and multi fuel use, Pete has a stainless steel campfire enclosure that can have the cover snapped in place, smothering out the fire quickly. Here is a look.
It rained enough last night that the boat’s bilge was past full and the cockpit area had two inches of water in it. It took awhile to pump the bilges !
Anyhow, the storm is past, the air is fresh and clean as only a Spring storm can make it. Since we didn’t cast the jugs last evening, we will repair and upgrade our unlimited class fishing tackle.
It may be time to run up to the tackle shop.
As we get ready for a fish fry, my ratty old fish cleaning cut offs have been washed and are drying on the fence, ready for the next fish cleaning evolution.
The outside kitchen is folded out and ready.
The fish fillets and all of the sides are in the freezer and refrigerator on the utility trailer.
The fish cooker is ready.
A supply of peanut oil is ready.
Fish Fry ! We gotter’ on our minds !
Anytime we post a photo of a large catfish that we have caught, photographed and put back in the lake, we get lots of comments.
The comments run from “are you outta’ yer’ mind !” to “way to go !”.
Here is one that we put back earlier this week.
This large blue catfish tipped the scales a bit above 45 pounds, we quickly snapped a photo and put it back in the lake.
There is just something about handling a catfish of this size, that accelerates the pulse and respirations, as well as giving a bit of an adrenalin rush !
We usually put back any fish that weighs over 25 pounds. Our thinking is that they don’t taste as good and they have more value to us, in the lake producing thousands more catfish.
Here is the way we roll at JUGFEST2011, a quick photo glimpse of stuff.
The Kawabunga Truck and the Coleman 5er.
Office slideout, outside kitchen.
TV dish out of the way under the king pin.
Fish cleaning station and cutting board.
Firewood pile and fire ring.
Boat trailer off to one side.
Our view from the kitchen window.
Our 50 amp electric campsite with sewer and water hookups, with the senior pass discount is $9. per day.
Our days at the lake have been ever so wonderful ! Last evening as we finished casting the jugs we took this photo of the sunset.
Note the jug floating in the water.
The lake was almost glassy slick this morning as we got ready to pick up the jugs. Here is a look:
Betty is holding the boat towels that we wipe down the seats with. We sip on coffee and snack on honey buns to hold us over till’ a mid morning breakfast, before cleaning fish.
It was chilly as we idled out into Bear creek inlet this morning and the sun peeked over the horizon.
Today’s catch wasn’t large, but all were small enough to taste great. We caught four nice catfish and were back at the camp ready for breakfast by nine AM.
Locating , catching and casting bait fish is quite a process. Here is a look at a few of the steps.
In this photo Pete has just picked up a bait trap and it has a lot of bait fish in it.
The lake is quite low this Spring. Finding the bait fish took a bit of head scratching.
Finding the right depth and a place where there is feed and shelter for the bait fish is a critical part of the process. Also, it has to be in the proximity of a bream spawning area for maximum efficiency.
When you get good at locating and catching bait fish, there is quite a responsibility associated with it. You must be careful to not take so many that you decimate the spawning area’s population. That is accomplished by moving to another place. Yep bait fishing is a constant and on going process within the jug fishing art.
In this photo Betty and Pete are dumping the bait fish from the trap into the boat’s forward live well.
The bait fish are taken from the live well as needed during the cast of the jugs.
Pete has just cast the last jug in a cast of two dozen. For safety and simplicity we only put one hook and one bait fish on each jug.
The remaining bait fish are put back in the lake, so we will have some for next year !
