Family Vacation in Port A

We recently returned from a vacation in Port A with most of my family, 12 of us to be exact. We were there to celebrate my grandparents 60th anniversary and enjoy a nice family vacation. While there, Michael, Dad, Ryan, Grandaddy, and I went on a guided fishing trip. The trip was a total success, we ended the morning with 37 keeper speckled trout in the cooler, can you say fish fry??? Take a look at that haul...

We also had a professional photographer take some photos of our family and they turned out wonderful! Here is one of the whole family.

And last but not least, the morning after the photo shoot I asked Katie to marry me and I gave her a little diamond ring. The wedding will be November 20th and I could not be more thrilled to be moving on to a new exciting time in my life!

Shrimp Boat Captain

After making 3 or 4 trips to the coast this last summer, my buddy Charley and I caught the saltwater fishing bug. At the end of the summer we decided to take his 17 ft. bass boat down to Port O'connor and give it a go on our own. We had a good time but realized that we needed a bigger boat....

At that point, the search was on. For 5 months or so we scoured craigslist, ebay, boat trader, and any other boat sales sites. We found one close to my house here in Austin, we both went to look at the boat, and made the owner an offer. He did not take the offer, so we moved back to our search. A few weeks later I got a call from Charley and said he had talked a guy down $1900, over the phone on a really nice boat that was exactly what we were looking for.

I called the guy up and set up a meeting to drive the boat. I took a friend of mine, Frank, who was at one time a boat mechanic. Took the boat for a spin on Lake Travis, tested the speed, how it handled rough water, and looked good at the condition of the boat. I was sold so I told Charley that I liked it and he needed to set up a time to look at it. So a few days later I was on my way to a softball game when I got a phone call from him, he told me the boat was behind his truck and headed back to Giddings. Now we had our boat!!!

I'll keep everyone posted on its maiden voyage. I have a feeling it will involve alot of fishing, story telling, and maybe a little drinking!

South Dakota Pheasants

On Sunday evening I returned from a 1200 mile trip that took me to Southeast, South Dakota in search of the elusive pheasant. Not a trip for the weak at heart, especially when you drive there(Aprx. 18 hours). Its not SO much the driving, because there is some beautiful scenery between here and there, but its the sitting in a car that kills you.

This trip included some of the best wing shots that I have ever been around, so there was no room for shooting error. The distinguished list of guest included Oscar Range, Mike Cage, Dan Nance(My Dad's high school buddies), Jeff Hotze, Brian Hotze(Brothers Obviously and family friends), Buddy(A good friend of Oscar's from Marshall, TX), my Dad, & I. We also brought a pack of bird dogs with us including Molly, Boss, Duke, Max, Gretta(All Oscar's German Short haired Pointers), Ike(Oscar's 12 year old Black lab and mascot of our crew), Zoe & Roxe(My Dad's German Short haired Pointers). So with the firepower of 8 accomplished shooters and the assistance of 8 of the finest hunting dogs around we set out take the hunting to the next level.



The weather was wonderful, starting in the 30's and peaking in the low 70's under a beautiful blue sky. We crammed as much hunting into those days as possible but never really hunted hard. We ate well, drank much, and came home with 100 pheasants in the cooler. A successful hunt with good friends and I hope to do this every year for as long as I can! What more could you ask for???

Driving Woes...

I have let myself cool down for a day before writing this because yesterday I was pretty hot on this subject. Let me first say that I am not a racist or sexist person unless a certain race or sex gives me a reason. And I know stereotyping is bad but there seems to be a trend forming, at least in my experience, and its truly frustrating.

So yesterday morning we leave my grandparents house in Justin, TX(just north of Ft. worth) headed for Georgetown, TX. We are in my Mom's Honda CRV with 4 grown adults, 1 baby(w/ car seat), and 4 schnauzers. So there is very little room and tension is already high, as you might expect. So now to my story...

We are driving south on I-35 which is generally known to be one of the worst roads in Texas. As we approach North Ft. Worth we start to see a slow in traffic. Not long after we start to experience a slow down we see a large orange sign that reads, "Left Lane Closed Merge Right". So naturally I put on my blinker and get over into the right lane behind an 18 wheeler, which is now stopped. As I am stopped, I start seeing the people behind me following my lead and moving over into the right lane as instructed by the sign. All of the sudden there is a truck cruising down the left lane past me and I happen to look over and the driver and passengers happen to be of Mexican decent and don't appear to be legal immigrants(When you live in Central Texas you can usually tell the difference). The look on his face signifies to me that he feels he is doing nothing wrong or just has no idea. This trend continues with vehicles passing in the left lane and trying to cram over into the right lane ahead causing the traffic to crawl along at a grueling pace. The people that pass include an African American male in his ghetto ride(you all know what I mean), a Caucasian woman with big sunglasses talking on her IPhone, and last a Hispanic woman by herself with the same clueless look on her face all respectfully pass us. During this stretch we pass another 3 large orange signs that read "Left Lane Closed Merge Right", the kind of signs that you cannot miss. So I ask myself a few questions: Are these people in a bigger hurry than I am? Do they feel their destination is more important than mine? Are they clueless as to the flow of traffic and how it works? Or do they simply not care about anyone else but themselves? Or do they simply have their head up their A**? It may be for reasons that I cannot even fathom its frustrating none the less!

I am not really going to be able to write what I really think about these people or this experience because I feel it would be a little much for most people to handle. So please hear my cries, if you can't read English then don't drive, if you can't talk on the phone and drive then please hang up, and if you just don't care about anyone else but yourself on the road then you better watch your A** because I have good insurance and am about an inch from running you off the road!!!

Gone Fish'n...

So a couple of weeks ago me and a buddy of mine Charley decided we would go on a fishing trip to Port O'Connor. An adventure that we were excited but apprehensive about as well since neither of us had spent much time boating in the bays. POC(what the locals call Port O'Connor) is a small Texas coastal fishing town, I had been there before but it was Charley's first adventure. To make it more interesting, we hauled his 17 ft. bass boat to fish out of. Believe me when I say that there are very major differences between a boat made for the ocean and those that are not...

We fished the first two days by ourselves and managed to catch a few keepers and not kill ourselves in the process. The third day we were lucky enough to fish with a couple of good friends, Colby and Nick who are "old salts" and were able to put us on some fish. We learned alot, fished harder than I have ever fished, and even managed to catch some Fish! (Picured here are 2 flounder and 7 slot redfish)