Poor Serenity Pond

no photos right now. But the pond is a good three feet down and not looking active at all. usually there are throngs of fussy blugills in hot pursuit of flies most all times. But not lately.

Ironically, there is an irrigation system leak in the surrounding park that is sending a steady flow of water across the parking lot, into the rain gutter and down into the nearby creek. I am emailing the city today in hopes of getting that fixed.

Maybe someone upstream of the Serenity pond inflow will need to drain a swimming pool in the next few days.

Update, called the city and someone is headed over to look at the leak. Still, Serenity pond needs water so I can go fishing...

Beatin' The Heat at Serenity

Set the alarm for 6:00 AM and actually woke up and headed out! It's easy to roll over on a Saturday morning and blow it off .But I didn't and I went and I am glad that I did.

It would have been nicer to get there before the sun got up but I won't get too greedy. At least I was on the water.

Started off with a yellow and chartreuse foam spider:


This was the first fish of the day. He fought like a champ. Three weight rod was OK but I sure wish I'd brought the one weight. Two thirds less rod equals ten times the fun factor!


I kept on working my way around. I switched over to a Bitch Creek nymph but that seemed not to be all that interesting so back to the oam spider. As I worked on down the north shoreline I saw a fascinating sight. A very small bass or a bold bluegill came out of the water a good four or five inches trying to nab a dragonfly out of the air .He was unsuccessful but I wished him luck in the future.

Off the western shore lies a flat where the bream bed each season. I have dubbed it "Catfish Alley" as this is where I landed this fellow a few weeks ago and then this morning a channel cat took the foam spider. What a battle! Again, my initial thoughts were "nice bass!" but then the rugged, slugging, bore to the core of the earth battle started telling me I had a cat. Then I saw his dorsal fin and there was no doubt.

Here he is. He refused to cooperate for the photo shoot!



A little farther on down the shore I hit my last fish of the day, a little battling bass.


Everybody liked that foam spider. This is despite my concerted efforts to increase my skills and learn to tie Bitch Creeks. I did land one little old bluegill on the Bitch Creek there at the end. But by then I was ready to go and was too lazy to take a picture.

I'm indoors now and plan on remaining so until late tonight or wee tomorrow.

It's Not the Size...

of the fish in the fight, it's the size of fight in the fish! I caught this little fellow yesterday on Duck Creek. He was no way gonna give it up easy at all!

(OK, not McKinney but it was still fun!)

Nervous

Ouch!

Imagine one of these babies with the eye snagged in carpet and the business end jabbed into the top of your toe. We are talking diagonal cutters to get free from the carpet and then a caring and loving wife with a large pair of pliers snatching it free from the flesh of the big toe - right by the nail.

A learning experience indeed.

Jack Plotts Has Passed Away

I received an email from Jack's son that he passed away last night in his sleep. Jack had been battling cancer for several years, far longer than the doctors ever expected him to.

These past few weeks he had been sending me photos of some of his foam flies and some lures he had made. At his behest I am posting them for public use on my Flickr page

Jack Plotts Foam Flies Set

I will add to it as I continue to scour for any others he sent me over the years that may be tucked away in files.

I have no details concerning the memorial services. Hopefully someone will be able to update us with any details on the services.

Jack lived up in Illinois and I am here in Texas so we never met face to face. But over these past few years I came to know him via our correspondences. Quite a friendly and caring fellow. I will miss his humor and know how and friendly demeanor.

McKinney Trout Derby

Well, the derby gets more and more popular each year and more and more folks show up to fish. It's getting to be so that there isn't room around the shoreline any longer.

My son did not have the grand time I'd hoped he would and actually quit early.

I need to seriously review my participation, it's not the same anymore (but nothing does stay the same does it?)

Perhaps more fish, more shoreline? It bears review. At least there are tons of kids having fun.