2 Bee or Not 2 Bee

OK enough is enough.

We have been fighting with a hive of honey bees who decided to take up residence at our house almost two years ago. We first saw them upon returning from Harding graduation in May 2005. Check out this post.

Tracy provided a good report of the Bee Guy's efforts and we were confident that we had done what we needed to do to eliminate the hive before it became a real problem.

I can tell you that several more visits from the Bee Guy last summer and several hundred dollars later,we were still trying to get rid of the bees. They returned again this Spring and chewed through the caulking where the Bee Guy had sealed up and for the past few weeks have been feverishly working gathering pollen and going in and out of a hole the size of a pencil. It was hard to determine how many bees were working the hive until this week when they started swarming on the outside of the house again like they did in 2005.

This picture was taken last Saturday and there has been more and more each day since then. I had lined up a contractor to remove the soffit and fascia and clean out whatever honeycomb had been constructed.

They started on the job this evening and when Tracy and I returned from Wednesday night Bible study they were well underway. They must have killed several thousand bees and when they got the boards opened up they were able to remove about 100 lbs of honeycomb and honey so far. What a mess!

Honeycomb, honey, and a bunch of dead bees.



Demolition - Searching for the Queen



They had to spray the honeycomb with foam.

I'll update this post when they find the end of the honeycomb.

We may be on the news yet!

The Power of Suggestion

Brother Paul has been wearing me out this week with post after post of fishing adventures. After talking to him and hearing the story, I finally had enough and headed over to Evans Lake for the last 30 minutes of daylight after supper.

I was going "fly rod only" and wondered if the bass were still on the beds or if they were back in the normal feeding pattern.

I decided to try a green minnow pattern first but after 20 casts decided to change tactics. There were several bluegill popping the surface but I hadn't seen a bass since I had arrived. I tied on a #14 hare's ear nymph and caught a few baby gills but nothing picture-worthy.

Just as the light began to fade I began to see some bass protecting their beds along the shore. I decided to tie on a small rubber frog and after a few casts finally got a bass to hit it. Fish on!

I had a nice fight with a 1-1/2lb fish on my Temple Fork 5wt and even got to take a picture!

The hook was small but deep enough in the gullet of this fish that I decided to cut the line instead of trying to extract it. The frog was already loose from the #8 hook and we were both winners as I got my frog back and the fish was relatively unharmed. I have read that the hook will rust out in short order as it will be in contact with the fish's digestive acid.

I tied on a small crawfish and tried to get another bedding bass to play but darkness finally caught me.

Here are the flies de jour from left to right,
Green minnow, hare's ear nymph, froggy & crawfish.

March Madness on the Pier

The March Madness basketball tournament started this week and my screen name in our family Yahoo group is "Rather B Fishing" if that tells you anything.
I have been playing catch-up since I was out of the office last Friday and this Monday & Tuesday. Matt was scheduled to come home for Spring Break after his Friday classes and rather than wait for him on the couch, I decided to head to the 1st Street Pier to see if the specks were still there. We had some heavy rains during the week and the wind had switched to the North so I wasn't feeling too confident about what I might find.
I ran into a good friend and former bass fisher at lunch. I think Mr. Huskins officially has the kayak bug and we have been discussing the finer points (and health benefits) of kayaking.

He has been hearing me talk about fishing in Palacios since last Fall so when I informed him that I was about to head South he found a way to join me. Paul had never caught specks before and I was eager to see him get into them.

We arrived before sundown and fished the jetties with no success.

The fun began after dark............

Low Tide on the Palacios Jetty


Sunset Fisherman


First Catch - It's a whopper


Double Trouble


Paul Strikes Silver


Two nice Specks


The Bounty of the Sea

We fished alongside a family with two young boys. The little one was a live wire and I still don't know how someone (including us) didn't end up in the water. They had been fishing unsuccessfully since about 4 PM when we arrived and after I caught the first double right in front of them on a 1" shad rig I was able to convince them to try some of the small stuff. They ended up landing some fish and I think by the time they headed in they were all happy.

Paul caught over 50 fish and I think he is officially a fan of night fishing off the 1st Street Pier. He got the whole experience - "Flipper" even made an appearance but didn't stay so long as to mess up the fishing. There were some sand trout (the first I've seen this Spring) and croaker along with lots of specks. We even saw some bait fishermen catching hardheads so that confirms that winter is over.

No keepers again but fun just the same. Matt beat me home even though he got into some traffic coming through OKC & Big "D".

"Just one more cast..."

The Haves & The Have-Nots

The water in Tres Palacios Bay is steadily warming and the bait fish have returned.

There are millions of tiny glass minnows in the bays now and the speckled trout follow them to the lighted piers at night.

When we returned from our trip to OKC on Monday, I took care of a few things around the house and headed to Palacios with my UL & some tiny glow baits to see if I could connect with my "fishy side".

I arrived at about 8:30 PM and planned on staying until midnight. I finally headed home at 3:00 AM so that should say something about the fishing. I did not have my Pentax with me and took some pictures with my phone.

Schoolie


The largest of this double was close to legal

Typical Speck

There were hundreds of specks around the lights and they would only hit things that were super small. Now when I say small, I mean less than one inch and on a 1/32 oz jig head. I tried the fly rod with a variety of shrimp patterns but they were really keyed in on the minnows. My fishing companions who showed up with big daytime-baits were skunked. I tried to share my little stuff but it's tough to cast a little crappie jig with a heavy saltwater rod and 20 lb mono.

I counted the first 20 fish (between 8:30 - 9:30) and just relaxed and enjoyed myself for the rest of the time. The fish would bite for a while on one bait like a micro-grub and then they would quit. I switched to a 1" double shad and the fish responded by coming alive again. I have accumulated quite a supply of small crappie and panfish glow-in-the-dark plastic baits and it was great fun catching tons of fish.

The minimum size limit on speckled trout is 15" and I caught at least 25 fish that were between 14" and 14 7/8" but I couldn't squeeze that last 1/8" out of any of them.

I like the idea that you don't need to measure your success by how big the fish are or whether you get to take any home, but instead by how much fun you had catching them.

The trip was a great success!

Oklahoma City National Memorial

Well this post doesn't have much to do with fishing or fly tying (unless you count a trip to Academy & Bass Pro Shop).

We are in OKC visiting Matt and attending Spring Sing. We hooked up with Matt for dinner at Chili's and saw the show last night. It was really good and it was obviously a lot of work for the stage crew to get all the performers on and off the stage with the right props, lights, sound, etc.

Robyn was able to come up and she arrived while we were in the show so we caught up with her at the hotel. This morning we all got together and Matt gave us the grand tour of the OC campus. We even got to see his freshman engineering project - a remote controlled car. The car was built from the ground up by the students and was wired with motors, a rechargeable battery, sensors, led lights, and a programmable "stamp". Matt was unable to demonstrate how his car worked since it had the wrong program onboard. He was in the process of wiring up and programming it to fire off a stopwatch (from an old wristwatch). Pretty cool!

We all had lunch together at Mac Alister's deli and we took Matt back to school to prepare for the matinee.

The rest of us touristas headed down Route 66 to the Round Barn in Arcadia. The resident character - Butch - was there to greet us and to try to sell one of his paper plate creations. They were mainly mother-in-law jokes hand written and illustrated with a sharpie on the front and back of a white paper plate.

Next stop was the OKC National Memorial built on the site of the 1995 Murrah Federal Building.

This is the third visit we have made and each time has been an almost overwhelming experience. The museum and outdoor memorial are very well done. I would highly recommend this to anyone coming to the OKC area.

I'm including some pictures that remind me of the tragety and the hope of the future.

Through the bars

The Fence


Reflection Pool

The Survivor Tree

Field of Empty Chairs

Signs of Spring

Redbuds

New Beginnings

Future Pine Cones

Passing Seasons

Turning the Corner

The Wall

Isaiah 40:31
Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

Reflections

We got a nice surprise yesterday. As we were planning our departure to Edmond OK to see Matt, we spoke to Robyn and figured out a way for her to join us for the weekend. James is finishing up a grueling week on his new job and will remain in Ft Worth to recover.

I was up early this morning and decided to head to Evans Lake for some early morning fishing before heading to the airport. The lake was as calm as glass and as I walked the shoreline casting into the shallows I had some time to enjoy the reflections of the early morning.

I am so blessed to be loved by God and my family. I have a great job which has richly blessed us with everything we have needed and more. I have a loving spouse and three great kids. With God's help our daughter found and married a fine Christian husband and I love him as I do my other two children.

And on top of all that I have friends who encourage me and even some who let me fish in their lake!

I hope you enjoy these reflections:

Sunrise at Lake Evans



Calm Water


Cloudy Cove


Brush Pile


Shoreline


The Far Shore


Hello Sunshine!


In the Clover


Hungry Sunfish


Fat Baby



The Wall

Psalm 46:10


"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

Heber Shutout

I had to make a whirlwind trip to SLC and packed a rod "just in case".

The weather had been nasty the previous week but while we were there it was sunny and relatively warm.

I was supposed to finish my meetings by 5pm but they ran over. Tracy was ready and we pulled out of the parking lot at 5:30 with just enough time to get overt the mountains to Snake Creek. With any luck I would have a few minutes of daylight when we arrived to see if the Maiden II was worth it's salt on Utah Trout.

I was able to make a few casts with the UL in the fading light. I had one big fish roll on the lure and one smaller one follow it up but no takers. It was still worth the 45 minute drive up and back and thanks to my photographer I have some nice pictures to share.

Everybody out of my way! I have a fishing emergency!



Beautiful Heber Valley



Quick Change - How fast can you don your waders?



Fishing the pool in the fading light



Snake Creek Fisherman

Next time I'll start down below the trestle...

East Fork Float

The White Bass are running! The White Bass are running!

Like the call of a Siren, the thought of hoards of spawning white bass seeking the clean oxygenated waters of the creeks feeding local lakes draws the fisherman like ducks to a junebug...

It drives thim out of bed early on a Saturday morning in early March to get to the water early.

Paul & I were determined to get up and on the water by daylight so that meant my alarm would be set for 3:30AM.

It was pretty cool but promised to be a beautiful day.

The following pictures tell the tale - it was fun even if i did lose a stringer of fish. We did catch enough for a tasty meal and had a great 5-mile float down the East Fork.

Foggy Launch


Paul gets into the fish early


Cypress


Paul's creation catches fish!


This crappie fell for a chartreuse Micro Grub


The Happy Crappie


The Lost Stringer
I don't want to talk about it......


Largemouth Bass



Appaloosa Catfish


Fishy Tankwell

With God's blessings we had a great day of fishing.