REACHING THAT 100 FOLLOWERS MARK!!!!

A couple of days ago I reached the number 100 fisherman who joined up with Fishing Through Life. It just seemed like yesterday I started playing around with the blogging scene. I really never thought that I would get anyone to respond to any of my nonsense, and was really surprised when I got a few replies after my first couple of posts. I started blogging responding to other posts.  I continued that pattern for at least a month before I created my own blog. I can remember how cool I thought it was when I actually got someone to leave a comment on my first post. That first post got me hooked. This has become my way to communicate with some of the best fishermen in the world. I have learned so much from all you guys about fly fishing since I started that first post. I would like to thank all of you who have responded to my post over the past couple of years and most important all those who joined up with Fishing Through Life. I considered all of you my fishing buddies and know I can count on all of you for great fishing information anytime. I actually feel like I know all of you personally because we all have that one thing in common FISHING!!!  

Thanksgiving And All That Food

I thought I would give everyone a chance to digest and absorb all those calories before I did this piece. You know where I am going here, that day we all love to stuff our faces with as much fats and carbohydrates, as we can. Thanksgiving is probably the one day throughout the year we throw out the rule book when it comes to eating. I can remember growing up as a child my Mom would always cook up an astonishing Thanksgiving meal each year. She always looks forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, because that was her chance to show all of us how much she loved us, and that was through food, where she always proved her point. Thanksgiving and of course Christmas is a time for family and friends to come together and reminisce, and yes enjoy good food. Our family did that very thing on Thanksgiving, only with a different twist this time. My wife decided she wanted to enjoy the day without having to prepare all the fixings, so we all had our dinner at the Cracker Barrel. The meal was a feast to say least. For 9.00 the meal consisted of sliced turkey, and ham, with the dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans, sweet potatoes, and hot biscuits, rolls, or cornbread. The sweet tea came with the meal as did a huge slice of pumpkin pie with a whip cream topping. You just can’t beat a meal like that even if you are sitting there thinking, how many pounds am I adding to the waistline here? Now I will spend the next two weeks in the gym trying to work off those fat calories I stuffed in on Thursday. On well it’s the holidays enjoy!!  

Sipping Trout Below the Dam at Smith Lake

I have been waiting for two weeks to get to fish the tailrace below the dam at Smith Lake. The constant flow below the dam has been off for much of the month. The engineers at the dam are installing a new pump system that will produce a constant flow 24/7 instead of the off and on again flow that has been occurring for the past 6 months. My son, son-in-law and I all made a short trip to the tailrace Saturday evening and found the engineers had solve the problem and the water was moving perfect for some mountain like trout stream fishing. The water temperature was around 55 and there was not much of a rise. We landed one each for the afternoon, using the size 18 dry gnat and a 22 midge. The trout were feeding at the surface, but it was not the aggressive takes one would see this time of year. It was more like a sipping motion. I have seen this before and have never been able to figure out how and what to use to get the take, when this is happening. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see the trout and not be able to get any takes. We tried a number of patterns but none seen to produce on a consistent basics. True we all landed one trout each, but it seems in this particular case the trout know when the pattern is fake and the action is over. I do know that fish turn on and off as far as feeding cycles is concerned so I guess this was one of those off cycles. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope everyone has a save and hearty Thanksgiving. 

  

Nice bow on the 3 wt. This trout had some width to it. After the picture it swim off to fight another day

My son off in the distance right after he landed his trout for the evening

This little guy was helping us get our gear together, of course he let us know it was not fair he didn't get to go.

Ancestry Research Mixed With Fishing

Well for the past three days I have been in Mississippi trying to catch some crappie with my brother. The first day we battled high winds and only got a couple of nips and that was it for an afternoon outing. We decided to change lakes on the second day and moved to the upper smaller lake only to find the wind was gusting above 20, so we didn’t even bother to launch the boat. So both days as far as fishing was concerned was a complete washout -----but not quite as far as one of my objectives were concerned.

That objective was my work on our family tree. I have been working on this project for the past year and have really got into the Ancestry thing. I suggested to my brother we travel back to our old home place.  Choctaw County Mississippi was where both of us were born. I wanted to try to complete some of the information I was missing to finish my research. We spent the better part of the day at three different cemeteries locating individuals dating back to the early 1800s. I have traced and have photos of tombstones of our Great Great Grandfather and Grandmother. Beyond that, I am using Ancestry.com to find the other generations. This has been one of the most interesting things I have ever worked on and I've learned a lot about our heritage. For those of you who have never attempted this, I suggest you give it a try, you might be amazed at what you find out about your heritage.

This is the headstone of my Great Great Grandfather--this grave was in the family plot by their old home place

My Great Grandfather's gravesite in a local cemetery in Mississippi

I hope I didn't bore you guys with this post.