Mom/Daughter Fishing Day

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Jessica is now on maternity leave from her job. If I didn't, I meant to mention it.

Anyway, Jessica felt pretty good Thursday and asked me if I wanted to go fishing with her yesterday afternoon. That's kind of like asking Paula Deen if she'd like a stick of deep-fried butter, y'all. It took me about 15 minutes to get ready. A little slow for me, but I'll work on bettering my time.

Our first stop was Lake Hogue, just outside of Weiner, Arkansas. If any of you or your guys duck hunt, you may have heard of Weiner. We were looking for fish yesterday, but we did see some ducks and geese as well.

Also, Weiner is where Jason works and we didn't want to get too far from home or help just in case Jessica developed any problems with her or the baby.

This was the view straight out in front of me.
There were several boats on the lake.
If you click on the picture to enlarge,
you can see several dead trees
and snags in the water, left over from
when they flooded some swampy woods
to create the lake. They make for some
good fishing, but there are lots of snags
and hangups so it's easy to lose your
hook and sinker. Which I did on the
first cast with one rod and reel,
and promptly had to re-rig it.

I was fishing for catfish mostly, using
live worms for bait. The lake is full
of catfish, crappie, bream (or "brim"
as we pronounce it) perch, bass
and many other varieties of fish.
Jessica was using artificial baits
and lures because she doesn't like
using live worms or bait.
Bless her heart, she didn't catch
a thing yesterday. I caught one
little brim at Lake Hogue, but the
fish weren't biting much.
You can tell by Jessica's fleece
pullover that it was a bit chilly.We were on a small fishing deck or pier
over the water, and this was the view
to my right...And to my left...And this is another stunning
self-portrait. Ain't it fierce?
Ain't it intense? LOL!
That's Jessica's car behind me.
One reason we fish here is so
that I don't have to walk far
with my bad knees.
Jessica wasn't catching anything so
she was ready to go try it somewhere
else, and we moved about 10 miles
or so to Lake Poinsett.
On the way there, Jessica drank
her water like a good mama-to-be.
She has to cut down on her salt and
sodium and soda's are one of her
weaknesses, so it's a sacrifice for
her to drink water instead.At Lake Poinsett we tried our luck
with much the same results.

I like the shading of greens and
blues in this picture. Notice how
the trees are almost fully leafed out.
The only things I caught at Lake Poinsett
were another small brim and a turtle.
I caught this red-eared slider and
I was beginning to wonder if I
was ever going to get the poor
thing unhooked. She kept clamping
down on the hook, but I finally
got the hook out of her mouth
and had Jessica take a picture
before I put her back in the lake.Somebody who lives in a house right on
the lake has a large menagerie of various
animals, including lots of different birds.
I was just sitting there, enjoying the
different bird calls and noises. I grew
up with chickens, geese, turkeys,
guineas, ducks and more and I
was enjoying the memories
hearing the birds had triggered.
Suddenly, a male peacock squawked
and Jessica almost had a runaway!
She screamed and hollered,
"What in the world is making
that awful noise?!"
I laughed till I almost wet
my drawers before I could finally
compose myself and tell her what
was making the racket.
The whole time we were there
fishing she complained about how
annoying the birds were, and I
finally told her that her non-stop
complaining was a lot more annoying
than the ducks, chickens, geese,
turkeys and peacocks.
All in fun, of course. :-)

About 30 minutes before we left,
we had a visitor. I don't know if
he belonged at a house near where
we were fishing or if he was supposed
to be waiting in the back of a truck
for his owners to come back, or really
just where he came from, but
a huge rottweiler appeared, seemingly
from out of nowhere. I just looked
up and there he was.Fortunately he was friendly, because
he was huge! He probably weighed
150 lbs. easily, maybe even more.
He had some really nice, big,
pointy white teeth, too. Thank
goodness I saw them because
he was grinning at us and not
because he was baring them
to growl at us!I have no idea what his name was
because he had no collar or ID,
but we tried out various names
and he answered to Jo Jo. I guess
it was close to his real name, or
maybe he just decided he liked
the sound of it.Jessica fell instantly in love with him
and wanted to take him home with her,
but you could tell that dog was somebody's
baby. He was well cared for and well
behaved, very friendly and polite.
When we got in the car to leave,
Jessica had the back door open loading
some of her stuff. She snapped
her fingers and he immediately
jumped in the back seat and settled
down, ready to ride. It was obvious
he'd done that before.

I had to make her get him out of the car.
I told her he belonged to
somebody and he'd find his way
home, that it wasn't right to
assume he was lost and needed
a home. Besides, she lives in a small
apartment, and it wouldn't be fair
to take a big active dog to her
little home. Not to mention
that her two cats surely wouldn't
be appreciative of a new roomie of
his size and species.

All in all, we had an enjoyable day.
When Emmy gets here we won't be
able to do these kinds of spur of
the moment things. We'll have to
worry about diaper bags and all the
assorted paraphernalia you have to
haul along with a baby. It won't be
nearly as easy to just pick up and
go when the baby arrives.

I don't think Jessica and Jason really
understand how much their lives
are going to change when they
become parents. And I don't think
all the telling and advice in the world
will prepare them for it. It's one of
those things you have to learn from
experience. But I think they're up
for the challenge. We'll see in a
few weeks, won't we?

Hope y'all enjoyed the pictures and
the little peek into our day.

Take care, everybody.

Love and blessings,