50th.

 Well, "as Ronald Reagan used to say," Cathey and I have reached a significant milestone in our lives: our 50th wedding anniversary this Sunday. We look back on that day with fond memories, but we also understand that many of the individuals who attended our wedding are no longer with us. This is why we feel so blessed at this stage in our lives.We celebrated the day early during the last weekend of June at Jason's house in Greystone Farms, with Jenny and her family in attendance. Starting school for the grandchildren and Jason's work schedule didn't align with August 17th, it didn't bother us; we were just glad to be with family on this special occasion.

Everyone enjoyed the food, and of course, the fishing!

The desserts, after everyone had stuffed themselves with barbecue ribs from Jim and Nick's, was a Lemon Icebox cake with stuffed cupcakes and huge chocolate chip cookies. 

The kids love going to Uncle JJ's, which is what they call him. They look forward to spending time fishing on the lake every year. 

Cathey and I are lucky parents and grandparents!! 

Fishing the Micro Light Spinning Rod



The blooming of the Dogwood Trees are always the sign that the crappie has begun to spawn here in the Deep South. I’ve been noticing the Dogwood buds but no bloom yet. That didn’t keep me from joining one of my fishing buddies the other day to test the waters for some slab crappie.

My 7 ½ ft. microlight spinning rod paired with the Pflueger President XT spinning reel is perfect to handle big crappie. I’m using 4 lb. test vanish line with a small curly tail shad jig to duplicate small minnows. The balance of this rod makes it effortless to cast for distance and accuracy. Using the micro light combo parallels the light 7 ½ to 8 ft. fly rods.

The dark male crappie is one beautiful fish in the early spring.  All the crappie today was landed using the micro. I had the 4 wt. fly rod with me but the wind was too strong to get a dissent case in place; in other words, my patience has worn thin dealing with the gust coming from all directions.

The in results, using my new fish cleaning table from Bass Pro Shops; these ten beauties yielded 40 mouth-watering fillets.