April 1-5th

Easter weekend and the days leading up to it have been good to us. The weather has been great, the Bluebonnets are popping up everywhere, and the too-short Texas spring is gaining momentum. The last few days have seen us busy with family, fishing and lots of food.

April 1st: Shawnee park, Plano
My friend Sterling showed me this park originally, and though he caught a number of bass and a crappie or too, I had only managed very small, almost stunted bream. On April fools day I figured I would give it another shot and I am glad I did. Ended up having a good time and caught 7 fish, a couple of which were small Bass. It was extremely windy, but from my position near a cement pipe I was able to make some ok casts along side some lilly pads.





On Friday we woke up and headed out of town in a thunderstorm. Didn't get to fish at all, unless you count a few casts into the Neches on the eastern side of Chandler as a fishing trip....(for the record I did catch a green sunfish!)

Friday evening we spent with family and went to Walmart.....


Saturday we woke up at 6 and drove out to Lake Fork, stopping by J and J Marine to pick up the 15 foot bass boat I rented for the day. Boats or all kinds have their own unique frustrations. I think from now on I will probably rely on friends who know what they are doing, or invest in a small Jon boat of my own....ok onto what I will call "Triumph and Tragedy!"


We used Clousers most of the day, sadly we only caught two small bass, which is a sight better than being stabbed in the eye with something pointy.
Bass#1


Bass #2

As for the Tragedy previously mentioned....I broke my lovely Helios 6wt and had to make due with Emalie's 4wt Clearwater, while she used the TFO 3wt. I snapped the Helios ppicking it up, not realizing it was wedged underneath the casing for the trolling motor. I was proud of myself that I didn't start dropping F-bombs! I Already talked to my friedn Shawn at Orvis in Dallas and he said I will have it back good as new in about 3 weeks. All in all, not a bad time, but i think I will use a guide from now on.


We left Lake Fork around 3 o'clock, thinking we would get a head start on getting cleaned up for dinner that evening, but on the way home we took a small 2 hour detour to a city park we passed while going through Lindale, called Faulkner Park. What a blast, besides the 40 or so bream Em and I caught, I managed 7 Black crappie. non of them where what I would consider keepers, but on a 4wt they were a lot of fun! This was the first time I have ever caught black crappie, so that was a treat in and of itself.



the black crappie were a lot of fun, half the time they took my foam spider rather than the hare's ear i was using as a dropper.

small but fun...

Pale Face v. Crappie


I am of the mind that even if the fish are small, if you catch enough of them on light gear, you will end up having a good time.

After fishing we made it to my aunts house for Pizza and church on Sunday morning.

"Up from the Grave He Arose!"

After Easter lunch with the fam we headed back to Arlington to pick up Pepsi and Bluebell, stopping for a quick cast or two at Purtis Creek State Park:

I was really excited as I pulled it in, thinking because of the side coloration that i had a GIANT Long Ear sunfish, but after landing I realized that it was actually a nicely colored Red Breasted sunfish. I caught one of these last year in the Llano while fishing outside of junction, but it was so young that it had yet to develop the nice adult coloration and telltale extra long "ear". This was the only fish we caught and it brought a nice close to our weekend.



Tight lines!