I Need Some Meat

Kevin and I had a pretty rapid-fire Labor day weekend of good fun, food (Katherine friendly of course), company, and exercise. One of the main events was our first lake-fishing adventure in Texas. We didn't come back with any fish, but for several good reasons: we'd never fished that lake before, we'd never fished at that time before, we'd never fished for bass/catfish/crappie by ourselves before, we'd never fished with the bait and lures suggested to us before, and we'd never fished while in a kayak before. So here's a summary of our adventure in a nutshell. Feel free to chuckle or guffaw.

We rented a tandem kayak for free and piled in with our two poles and a backpack full of fishing goodies. We head out on the water and immediately noticed the difference that is "Labor Day weekend on the lake." Lots of boats! Lots of People! The water was choppy! But we coordinated our paddling efforts and make it to the reeds across from the lake house. In fact Kevin said we were way better than last time in the tandem.

Tandem Kayak (needs anchor)

We find a little alcove and start to start to take things out and set things up. The backpack is soaked at this point. We have a self-bailing kayak, that may be why... There's also the choppy water, that might have also contributed.

Kevin takes the first plunge at casting while I try to maintain our position in the water. And that's all I remember doing for about half of our time on the lake (total time spent was about 3 hours). Our conversation went something like the following. It should be noted that Kevin has a high frequency hearing loss, and depends half on his hearing and half on his lip reading to understand what I'm saying in places with a lot of background noise. It was very loud that day.

Reeds (not a good anchor)

Kevin: "Point me to those reeds."

Katherine: "Which reeds?"

Kevin: "WHAT?"

Katherine: "Which reeds?"

Kevin: "The ones on the right."
Kevin: "Can you turn me around?"
Katherine: "Okay."
[Katherine proceeds to turn clockwise]
Kevin: "Can you turn me around the other way?"
Katherine "Okay."
[Katherine proceeds to turn counter-clockwise]
Kevin: "We're right where I want to be casting."
Katherine: "Where do you want me to go?"
Kevin: "Left."
Katherine: "I'm having a hard time staying here."
Kevin: "WHAT?"
Katherine: "I'm having a hard time staying here."
Kevin: "Just push us to the right."
[This goes on for a while]
Katherine: "Kevin, I have to say that my level of stress is v e r y  h i g h."

Kevin agreed. So we decide to paddle a ways up this clearing of reeds and try to anchor ourselves to the reeds using our stringer. That helped a bit. I was then able to fish using a jig for some crappie. I had a bite at some point. Wahoo! But neither of us caught anything. We still floated around a bit even while anchored, so we'll be looking into something a little more substantial for next time. But our good times we're over yet. Here's what happened within the last hour of fishing.

With my back turned I said, "Kevin I think I need to pee."

Kevin: "You need some meat? We'll I'm trying to get you some meat just as soon as I catch a fish."

I laughed for a good 2-3 minutes before I could tell him what I actually said.

Good times. Good times.