My youngest, Benjamin, graduated from college and accepted employment with Phillips 66. In one last bit of fun before starting work, I looked for a fishing guide service to take us fishing. I had lots of good memories fishing with my grandpa on Toledo Bend Lake and found a guide service called "Living the Dream." I scheduled it for last Monday and my Dad, Benjamin, Russ, and I went fishing.
We showed up at 7 AM and walked the gangplank down to the boat. I saw this placard on the wall of Living the Dream. My kind of folks... Traditional values.
We would have a guide who led us to the fish. He has tree tops sunk at several locations. He would get us to those points and we would drop our lines. His fish finder showed the depth and where the fish were. The fish we would be catching are sacalait (bag of milk), crappie, or white perch. All the same fish - different names, depending on where you're from. Our bait was live shiners.
And here's the first mate, Benjamin, with the first fish!
We rode by Southern Leisure Landing and we saw where we used to launch 40 years ago when my grandpa would take us fishing for bream. What memories! I can still remember that he'd keep the fish we would catch in the same ice chest as the Shasta soft drinks. When you'd pop the top on a Black Cherry Soda, it would smell and taste a little like slimy fish. Yum!! We put the top down and went under the Pendleton Bridge that connects Texas to Louisiana and we rode past a cove where we would water ski. Here is Russ looking out over that area.
We were on a pontoon boat. This one had 3 pontoons - a tri-toon. It had a cover. To get under the bridge, you have to put the top down. There's a story about that I must tell you that is going to sound like a fish story or an excuse, but I promise it is true! The guide put the net on top of the cover after catching some fish early in the day. We forgot it up there and took off to the next spot. The net blew off the top and promptly sunk 29 feet to the bottom of the lake. We fished the rest of the day without a net and MISSED approximately 8-10 BIG fish that flopped off when we were trying to get them in the boat. (The ones that got away!)
Once we caught 45 sacalait, 3 yellow bass, and 5 catfish, we headed back to the marina to call it a day.
Our guide, Captain Robert Lewis, took a photo of us. He did a very good job of getting us on the fish and making sure we had a good time!
As he was fileting the fish, the turtles began swimming in. The scraps get thrown to them and they get a free meal. Who turns down a free meal, anyway?
There were more turtles than you could shake a stick at.
Then the big white herons began to swoop down and get the scraps before the turtles could get them. It was a regular feeding frenzy.
We took a nice photo under the trophy bass on the wall of Living the Dream Guide Service.
What a great day! We caught some nice fish AND made some great memories! We'll be having a big fish fry soon...
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