Blah

Blah.

Did I mention Blah?

The weather patterns of late are suited more for, well, for nothing in my area but hunting, maybe, and that's if you can survive the mosquitoes. The rivers are fresh the tides are low and from the reports I'm getting, the fish aren't cooperating with the fishermen or fisherwomen.

I mean, I know we need the rain. The dust bowl that was our place north of Edna is now a green Serengeti with grass higher than a deer's back... literally, and I know we need more rain to replenish the aquifers... still I look forward to cold weather and clear water river fishing this time of year. I enjoy plugging the drop-offs along the various saltwater creeks and rivers and trolling some lures behind the boat in hopes a trout or red will feel up to the chase, but if it doesn't stop raining and dumping all that muddy run-off into the rivers as it has been, I can forget about it.

Then there are my friends that tell me the fishing is "on here" but I'm not there... Argghh. And this time of the year with the holidays and with vacation days in short supply, well it just makes life tough. Oh sure I could borrow from next year's vacation days but then I'd be short next year, I'd run out and not be able to make those long trips I love so much... the horror. Honestly I don't know how people manage to combine work and fishing and get enough fishing in unless they're guides and fish while they work but then there is feast and famine and to be honest when fishing becomes work... and where do they go, what do they do when they go on vacation do they fish? Someone remind me to ask McBride about that.

So with the winter blahs I sit and type my frustrations out on a laptop and now and then slip into the tackle room and try to clean a reel or clean the cork on a fishing rod, maybe change some hooks out on some favorite top water baits or read old issues of Gulf Coast Connections. Did you know that running the barb of a rusty old hook under your thumbnail is about the worst pain imaginable? Well it is, trust me. And it will hurt for days too. Did you know that you should wear eye protection when cutting old treble hooks off of top water baits with a pair of side cutters? You do... trust me. Did you know that with new batteries installed, a hook sharpener will actually burn skin off the back of your hand through friction? (Don't ask.) It will, trust me.

Okay I'm back. I found an old box in the back of the closet in the tackle room (it's really a spare bedroom but much to the chagrin of my wife I call it my "tackle room") and I've been going through the contents. In that box are some lures of days that have long gone by, remnants of my past and that of the inventors who would have become wealthy had the things worked and of some that actually did work and quite well at that. The one that I remember the most for not working was one called "The Spark Plug." It's a topwater bait that has some type of oil or other liquid inside a clear body. There is metallic glitter suspended in the liquid that will move and sparkle as the lure is moved. They came in all sorts of colors, red, gold, green if memory serves me right. Denn Brother's in Bay City was the first place I ever saw them and Simon Denn told me he couldn't keep them on the shelves and that they were just tearing the trout and reds up with them in Matagorda but he couldn't remember which color was the hottest catcher so I bought one of each... and they cost more than other lures too. I may have caught a fish on one of them I can't remember if I did or I didn't but I do remember how pretty the glittery liquid looked as it trickled its way down a concrete loading ramp when dropped or on the bottom of the boat or if whacked against the side of a truck. I feel pretty certain that The Spark Plug caught more fishermen than it did fish at least in our area. I think I'll hold on to this one to remind me of what a great salesman Simon Denn was and what a sucker I was.

I did find a "new in the box" Pluggin' Shorty lure though. I'd forgotten about it and it wasn't with my other ones... cool find. This one is mint and has the original paperwork from The Doug English Lure Co. in Corpus Christi and it's now in its proper place among other popular baits from yesteryear. There are a few old Hump Lures that need attention in that box along with a couple of the old red handled floating stringers from the 60s; first ones made of plastic if I remember right. I found a few still new in the box Diawa PR & PM series reels in there too. Good reels for the day with a great thumb bar but with a "slacky" anti-reverse. I'm surprised this box has made it through the many garage sales my wife has had over the years.

So okay it's cold outside, it rained most of the day and the clearing of the creeks and rivers of freshwater just isn't going to happen. I wonder if my wife will be mad that I used the last of my vacation days for 2009 on a last minute fishing trip down south? The problem with being "blah" is that I get bored and when I'm bored I get creative. I wonder if McBride needs to have another garage sale or if he has any more of those "Cap Cams" he invented for sale? I think I'll ask him after I get into town.

Happy 2010 everyonebe safe.