Testing the Waters

There's been one day in the last two weeks here in Jasper that was suitable enough to fish and that was last Monday. The rest of the time it has been raining with flooding. Ivan and I boarded my Pelican boat and fished Monday afternoon on beautiful Walker Lake. We wanted to see if the bluegill and red-eye bass had moved into the shallow water next to the banks. We spent a good three hours casting small poppers and nymphs in some areas we both had fished before. 

I had to change poppers quite a few times before I got this bluegill to sniff hit it. Sniff hit meaning an extremely light hit, making me believe that the fish was annoyed with popper. This fish and the other small ones we landed were at least 6 to 7 ft. away from the banks; in other words no bank action at all. 

A slight breeze all afternoon kept the water surface laced with ripples. The only place we got any surface action at times was when found a smooth surface area.  Some small lakes take on a drab look in the winter months, but not Walker it retains its beauty throughout the year with large pine and oak trees lining its banks. 

Ivan landed this bluegill using a small Betts white popper. He spent a good hour fishing various colored popper patterns before this fish hit. Letting the popper sit motionless for a short period produced the strike. I was surprised that no fish was landed using the nymph. I told Ivan before we launched the boat that landing fish would be secondary for me this afternoon because I was just glad to get on the water. 

The levee was one area to avoid the wind. Poppers don't produce well when fishing choppy water surfaces. There was no red-eyed bass landed on this day. The red-eyed bass is native to the creek that feeds Walker Lake. The largest I've ever landed here was in the 12" size. 

The size 10 Betts popper is one of my favorites when fishing for finicky fish. The white and red Betts poppers were the winners today that got the bluegill's attention. Color does make a difference when fishing for bluegill. Most fishermen will tell you that bluegill is stupid and will hit anything cast their way; not the case when fishing out of season for this fish. Catching this size bluegill on a 2 and 3 weight fly rod is a blast. All of the small nooks in this lake doesn't require one to fish with a long fly rod. A 7 1/2 foot fly rod is a great choice to cover the banks making a short cast. 

As I get older I've come to realize that one doesn't have to land the largest and the most fish. Today's trip was a great example of that statement!!

Wood Projects

The winter months are a slow time of the year for me, mainly because of the limited time I spend on the water. Living in the deep South one doesn't encounter the extreme cold that the rest of the country experiences. 30 to 40-degree weather here is cold enough to keep folks inside, especially me. I can remember when I was younger I could endure the cold much better. Now I spend the colder days working in my woodshop, blogging, going to the gym, ancestry research and watching older movies, especially westerns. 
As for today's movies, there a very few that interest me. While I'm trashing today's movies I might as well lump the music of today in there too. The late sixties, seventies, and eighties had some of the best music ever. In other words, those individuals could sing and deliver a song with meaning. 

Sorry for straying away from my post title, "Wood Projects." I've spent the last 3 weeks working on three wall shelves for the grandchildren which will hang from their newly painted rooms. They needed some shelf space to display all the items they have accumulated since birth. I'm amazed at what a 10, 7, and 5-year-old have collected. 

The next step is getting the paint on all 3 wall shelves. 32"wide and 42"tall should display a lot of the kid's items they have collected.

My love of woodworking was developed during my teenage years working at my Dad's sawmill. My younger brother and I would spend the summer working at the mill while we were out of school. After high school, I attended a local Jr. College where I signed up for a woodworking class to take as an elective. At the time I wanted to be a history teacher, but after taking the wood class I decided I would change my major and become an Industrial Arts Teacher. It was a wise decision for me because it enabled me to do something that I enjoyed. In all my years of teaching, I never had to carry any of my students to the Principals office. I was blessed to have taught some outstanding individuals. 

I spend a lot of time in this 12 X 12 shop in the winter months. I'm still working on hanging some of my clamps.