Yeah yeah, looks pretty crappie

Even though I'm not in youth ministry right now, I just can't stay away from puns.

I don't remember if I reported that my boat broke, but it did, and I fixed it. Turns out that the part I needed to fix the trim/tilt was 40% cheaper from the Yamaha guy in Texarkana, so I had him ship it.

Since the boat is back in action, I invited my friend Trey to go fishing this morning. We went out early planning to bass fish for an hour or two and then try crappie fishing. I caught a good keeper bass in the first ten minutes. I don't generally keep bass, and today was no exception. A hundred yards or so down the lake we ran into some hybrids chasing shad in about 3 ft of water and caught five or six. Trey caught one about 17" long on a cheap telescoping pole with an Abumatic (like a Zebco 33) that really gave him a good run. I caught one a shade over 18", so he ended up in the live well.

We pulled up to a dock to crappie fish. The dock has brush under it, and there's also a brush pile about 20 yards out in front of it. As we were fishing out the end of the dock fixing to head to the brush pile, another boat came up to fish the same spot. Since we were there first, they "let" us have the brush pile and they fished the dock. I think they caught three keepers, and we did as well, plus we also caught a bunch of short fish. We left and went to another pile and caught four more keepers and then ran out of minnows. I honestly didn't figure we'd do much good, so we hadn't bought enough. Oh well.

After that we went to fish the lily pads before we went home. I had a fish hit my ribbit that was between three and four pounds, but he was running toward me the whole time and I never got a good hook set, so he threw the hook when he jumped. The very next cast the frog was smacked by one that was five or five and a half pounds, and I got the hook in him good. He jumped four or five times, but didn't get off. That's the biggest bass I've caught at Phantom, and it was 11 a.m. and probably already 95 degrees.

Then I waterskied and crashed twice. I'm really out of shape :)

I'm in a hotel in Fort Worth, because I have my round robin management interview tomorrow at 7 a.m. I went to the store tonight for about an hour and a half of scouting. I kind of figure it will go like many of the other tests in my life: I'll think I did OK and they'll think I did very well. I'll let y'all know how it turns out, although I won't officially be promoted for up to a month.

Oh My Goodness!

Yesterday I did something that I don't really ever want to do again. I taught class for 65 junior high kids BY MYSELF. I don't mind teaching. In fact, I kind of like it. This was not the kind of teaching I like.

I was told that there would be other adults there. By the time I figured out that no one was coming, it was too late. I had the opportunity to snag a preacher and an elder's wife, but I kept thinking, "Surely someone's coming." They weren't. The room was set up with kids sitting in a circle around the edge, and we added three rows on one end. What does that mean to the teacher? Someone is always behind him. Teaching to a circle, you can't face everyone at once. In a room full of middle school kids, if you're not looking at them, they're talking, and sometimes they talk even when you look at them.

On top of that, the projector that usually hangs from the ceiling had been removed and the ceiling tile left out. The result was that hot air from the attic poured into the room and onto my head the entire time.

I can't say for sure that I've never set anybody up for that kind of experience, but I have never had 65 of any age, and I tried to set up my classrooms in ways that prevented the behind the back talking. If I ever set you up, forgive me.
Jason

Fishing Frenzy

Shana and the boys headed out to the desert on Sunday afternoon to visit Gran and Big Daddy. What's a husband and father to do without his family, with three days off from work?

Fish, of course. Here's the report..
Sunday afternoon: One keeper black, 6 or 8 shorts (with Cody Goode)
Monday afternoon: 25 white bass, 1 blue cat (with Luke Hurst)
Tuesday morning: 1 hybrid, 1 black, 1 blue cat, plus 5 short hybrids, 6 or 8 short blacks
Wednesday morning: 1 hybrid, 1 channel cat, plus 8 short hybrids, several whites, 12 or 15 short blacks (with Luke Hurst)

The TPWD fishing report is as follows: Water clear; 81 degrees; 7.72' low. Black bass are slow. Crappie are fair on minnows and jigs. White bass are fair on live bait. Catfish are fair on live bait.

Seems like no one from TPWD has been fishing, or talking to any fishermen.

They family went to Roswell yesterday to see the family and fireworks.

I went to the Wallaces' to watch the Abilene fireworks. There was 1 firework every 8 seconds for 45 minutes. BORING. Even the kids got tired of watching.

Tomorrow it's back to work, which is OK, since I'm about fished out.