The year I was born, 1950, my grandfather built a lake on his ranch. When I was pre-teen I remember him taking me fishing there, using a cane pole and grasshoppers he chased down using his straw hat. In my late teens I started camping and fishing at the lake with my fishing buddies. About the time I retired in 2005, I installed a picnic table and deck at the southeast corner of the lake so that Laurel and I could spend time fishing, grilling and drinking a nice bottle of wine at the edge of the lake. In 2009, I installed a new road to the middle of the lake, built a small cabin, and started spending evenings with Laurel on the porch overlooking the lake, listening to the coyotes howl and making friends with the raccoons.
Then, from 2010 to 2011, we had zero rain. The lake completely dried up and all the fish died. I told Laurel that I doubted that the lake would ever recover during my lifetime. But early 2012 brought rain, a lot of rain, and within a year the lake was full. I restocked it with bass and bluegills, and by 2015 started catching bass again.
In 2017 I caught three large bass, 6-9, 6-13, and 7-6. These were the three biggest bass I had caught in over 60 years of fishing the lake.
Last Friday, just before the sun set, I was chunking a topwater plug when there was an explosion on the lure and a monster bass began tail walking. Fortunately the hooks were well set and a few minutes later I lifted the largest bass ever from the lake… 10.41lbs. After taking a few pictures, I gently released her back into the lake.
The other major accomplishment last week was the installation of high speed internet on the structure I had built and installed on the hill behind the ranch house. Finally I will be able to watch piggie tv from the Seabrook house.
We spent 6 days at the ranch this trip and got a lot accomplished. Piggie count went up another 3, bringing this years total to 34.