The Fishing and Boating Category
Summer is almost over
As Labor Day approaches, this marks a good time to reflect over the past summer. Overall, the summer of 2010 was a great summer – my dad gave me a boat a few months ago, so a lot of time was spent on the river fishing and camping. My wife and I got to go fishing a couple of times. Being sick for the first 2 weeks in August was no fun, but I’am felling a lot better now – except for a slight residual headache. With all Texas summers, the heat has terrible.
Labor day plans include a bar-b-q with a brisket, maybe some ribs, chicken, sausage, ranch style beans and whatever else I can fit on the grill.
After Labor Day focus is going to shift a little more towards hunting. My kids and I might head out to the deer lease to check the stands and feeders out.
This hunting season there is a certain creek bottom that I want to put a ladder stand up. Every year a buck goes through the creek bottom marking his territory. The stand is on the top of a hill, so I never get to see him. This year is going to be different, I’am planning on setting up at least 1 ladder stand 50 – 75 feet from where that buck makes his marks every year.
There is always “something” that is skipped over during summer, and this year it was taking my son to Lake Sam Rayburn to go fishing. Fishing on the river is nice, but I wanted to launch the boat at Mill Creek Park and go across the lake to Bear Creek and do some bass fishing over there. Maybe we can do that before the cold fronts start moving through and the bad weather sets in?
Some of my new favorite pieces of gear include a large MOLLE pack, and a Vargo Hexagon wood stove from readypro.org.
After some debate, I decided it was time to move away from the medium and large ALICE pack and get with the times. I have seen people on youtube talking about the MOLLE packs, so I decided it was time to get one.
I even made a video comparing 2 different MOLLE packs and a medium ALICE pack. For the full review, check out this link – MOLLE pack VS ALICE pack.
Overall, I like my new large MOLLE pack, I just wish it had more outside pockets and the internal radio pouch.
After testing the Vargo hexagon wood stove in my yard, I took it on a few camping trips – and it did a great job. Instead of using wood like the stove was designed to use, I used a can of sterno. In about 10 minutes I was able to cook noodles.
Here is a video about the Vargo Hexagon wood stove while I was testing it in my yard.
Labor Day is fast approaching, which means we only have about 1 more month of warm weather to go fishing and camping.
My wife and I have been wanting to go camping at Martin Dies State Park, which is at Dam B, but the weather has been so hot, we would have been miserable. So we are going to wait until the weather cools off just a little bit – maybe until the night time temps drop into the 60s.
We also want to take the kids camping before the weather gets too cold. But here in East Texas, sometimes its still hot all the way into early November.
So summer is not fully over yet, nor is Labor Day the “official” end to my summer plans. Its more like a mile marker saying “whatever you want to do, you better go ahead and get it done.”
As I look back over the summer of 2010, it was a good summer. It was one that will not be forgotten very soon.
Another trip to the Angelina River
It was one of those trips that I have been wanting to make for a long time. The day before (July 9, 2010) I took the time to get everything ready – the gas cans were fueled up, the poles and tackle boxes were set next to the front door, the day packs were filled with fresh water, first aid kit, an Eversafe Meal, ice chest put in the boat,,,,,, and a few more things.
The alarm clock went off around 5:45am – but I stayed in bed for a little bit. Got up, got my shower, brushed teeth, deodorant (you do not want body order while fishing), then I went into my sons room to wake him up.
While my son was getting his shower, and taking care of his business, I loaded the tackle boxes, poles and day packs in the boat.
We launched the boat at a place called “BevilPort” – which is off Farm to Market Road 2799, just Northwest of Jasper, Texas. As we were leaving the boat launch, the sun started to break though the horizon.
Its a beautiful site to be out in nature, everything is so pure, except where mankind leaves his trash.
After heading south for a few miles, we turned into a slew. At first look, it looks more like a ditch that does not go anywhere. But after a couple of turns, it opens up into a stump filled pond, with more cuts going deeper into the mix. When navigating the waterway, you have to be very careful because of all of the stumps. Some of the stumps stick out of the water where they are clearly visible, some are submerged just under the water. If your moving along using the trolling motor, and run up on one of the submerged stumps, there is a good chance that the boat will high center. Then its a matter of rocking back and forth, or swim to land with a long rope and pull the boat off the stump,,,. In other words, if you high center on a stump, chances are good your going to be there for a little bit.
In all, we caught 2 bass, saw 1 alligator, a few gar ranging in size from 1 – 3 feet long, and a couple of huge wasp nest.
We hit a dead end and had to turn around – one way, a tree was over the slew and the other way was blocked by heavy moss.
From there, my son and I headed south on the river and went to a primitive camping / picnic area. We off loaded our packs, and I broke out one of my Eversafe meals. The meal was spaghetti with meat sauce – and it was pretty good.
It was at this time that the heat of the day became noticeable, so my son and I agreed to head back home. The high for the day was supposed to be around 97 – 99 degree.
On the way back home I spotted a trot line jug, so the boat was started over to it, and a description of trot lines was added to the video.
Trot lines have an honor system – you do not mess with other peoples lines. No fish were taken off the trot line, it was just used for education purposes only.
Related Forum Threads:
Trip to the Angelina River on July 30, 2010
Watching gators and doing some fishing
Gator on the Angelina River
July 25 trip to the Angelina River
The day started off kinda early (for a Saturday anyway). The plans were for my son and I to get up around the crack of dawn, get a shower, get something to eat and head out. But things did not work out that way. Instead of getting on the river around 6am, it was more like 8:30. But even if we got a late start, it was still a beautiful day, the gators were out and the fish were biting.
We launched the boat at Bevilport, which is a public boat launch off Highway 63. Coming from Jasper, Texas, you turn left at the VFW sign, then drive for about 4 – 5 miles. On the way your going to pass some nice looking fields with traces of old pecan tree plantations. There is one rather large field where the cows share the shade provided by a few oak and pine trees.
When you reach the boat launch, you veer to the right, then make the circle to the left, so that your aligned up with the boat launch. From there, its a matter of taking the straps off the boat, making sure the plug is in, one last check to make sure we have life jackets. From there its just a matter of backing the boat trailer into the water and launching the boat.
Once we were on the river, my son and I headed south towards BA Steinhagen Reservoir and Dam B. The river was smooth, almost like glass, with the sky and trees reflecting in the still waters. There were a few cranes flying around the river – probably looking for a morning snack.
We were looking for a series of cuts off the river and provides access to some slews. Google maps shows a rather large network of cuts and slews just north of the Forks of the Rivers – which is where the Angelina and Neches Rivers come together. Before we headed out I had printed a map off Google map, the problem is, there was no latitude of longitude, so I had to go off how the river looked on the map and compare that to the real thing, and then figure out where the entrance to the slews were at.
One slew we turned into was filled with gators and stumps. I was a little worried that we would run up on a stump, poke a hole in the boat and have to swim to shore with gators all around us. So instead of running the gas motor, the trolling motor was dropped and we inched our way through the first slew. After exploring the back side, I realized that we were in the wrong place, so we headed back to the main river.
We had gone too far south, so we headed north.
After bouncing in and out of a couple of slits in the river, we found the one we were looking for. It makes a horse shoe looking turn, that gets narrow for maybe 100+ yards. At first look it appears to be a dead end, but it makes a 180 degree turn in the woods, and opens up into a nice sized pond and the series of slews that we had been looking for has been found.
If there is one word that I would use to describe the area, it would have to be beautiful. The cypress trees seem ageless, there is a calm there that can not be described with human words. Except for the boat, and the sounds of other boats on the river, its like stepping back in time 10,000 years. As you ease through the water-ways, the gators sit in the water watching you pass by, the birds fly from tree to tree, and the squirrels play in the tree tops.
When we first started fishing, I was using a worm, perch hook and cork setup – but the minnows and perch kept stealing my bait. The worms were probably 18 inches under the water, and I was fishing around the weeds. I could see the minnows and small perch rush out from the weeds, grab the worms, and rush back to the safety of the weeds. After only catching 1 perch, it was time for a change. So I fixed up a Texas rig with a pumpkin seed colored artificial worm. With the new setup I caught 3 bass, but only 1 of them made it into the boat. The other 2 got off the hook right before they got into the boat – and that aint no fish story.
My son was using a tiny torpedo top water lurer, and only caught 1 striped bass. I think the water might have been a little warm for the bass to be feeding on the top, but that is just a guess.
After working our way through the series of cuts and slews for about 2 hours, we decided it was time to head back. As we were working our way back through the cuts, my son spotted a baby gator swimming close to the bank. I’am just guessing the gator was about 24 – 36 inches long and it was making a barking sound. I figure the barking was kinda like a distress signal to its mom – “hey mom, these people are looking at me.” Just to be on the safe side, my son and I kept our distance from the baby gator, and kept heading on our way.
Post your comments in this forum thread about watching gators and fishing on the Angelina River.