The Stout Ranch

I am about one week away from being out of commission for a month or so. Next Wednesday, May 3, I will be getting my left knee rebuilt. Since its pretty hard to use a walker on a pontoon boat this week was my last opportunity to spank a few bass. Fortunately, my buddy Bruce had planned on coming down this week long before the knee surgery got scheduled. We fished roughly 2 ½ days mostly with topwaters. And, for the first time when fishing with Bruce, I ended up with the big fish trophy.

I picked up a 6lb-6oz fish on a white topwater popper about 10am on day one as we were working our way up the east shoreline of the lake.

Just an hour or so later, as we were just about to pass from the channel into the upper end of the lake, I pitched the same popper up against the bank and had a big strike. As soon as the fish began shaking its head on the surface, I knew it was a big boy. Turns out it was the second largest bass I have ever caught, and weighed 8lb-6oz.

The next day, while fishing just 30 feet from where I had caught my big fish the day before, Bruce flipped a worm on top of a raft of coontail and had a big strike. This was another big fish, weighing 7lb-13oz on the scales. For a while we wondered whether it was actually the same fish I had caught less than 24 hours earlier, but a close examination of the fins showed that they were definitely two different fish.

At the end of two days fishing, we had a final tally of 160 bass and two sore right arms. Next week will definitely not be as much fun.

January and February are the best time of year for fishing at the Stout Ranch. First, the cold water temps kill off a lot of the coontail so you can fish any type of lure you want. Next, the water in the lake becomes crystal clear making it easier for bass to zero in a lure. Last, but not least, the bass are the fattest they will get all year as the spawning season is just a few weeks away.

Such was the case this week when my fishing buddy for over 50 years, Bruce Slaven, made the annual trek to Moody Lake for two and a half days of bass spanking. Monday afternoon air temps temps were in the 70’s and water temp was 53. As soon as we started catching fish it was obvious that the fish were in the best condition I have ever seen. Every bass we caught had a huge gut and weighed as much as a pound over what the weight chart would predict. I suspect that the fish kill I had in October 2021 thinned out the population so there is an abundance of food for the surviving fish. We caught a good number of 4-5lb class fish and ended the first afternoon with a count of 82 on the clicker. Not as many as were catching prior to the fish kill, but still respectable.

On Tuesday morning while I was preparing breakfast, Bruce went out on the floating dock and made a few casts with one of his mega sized bass baits. Suddenly my phone rings with Bruce telling me to bring the scales right away. Turns out he had just landed the second largest bass of his life and the second 10lb+ bass to be caught in my lake… 10.04 Lbs. Not a bad way to start the day.

Tuesday it rained off and on all day and the bite slowed down, however Bruce did manage another trophy fish of 7.01 Lbs on a regular size jerk bait. The final tally for the day was 55 on the clicker.

Wednesday morning the rain continued and the wind began blowing from the north. Fishing was quite slow all morning and early afternoon until about 3pm when the clouds began to thin out a little. We started catching 4-5 Lb fish in the middle of the lake using Texas rigged worms. It was getting colder and by 4:30 we were starting to discuss whether to call it a day when Bruce tied on the mega bass Ashari swim bait on for one last attempt at a big fish. It worked… his next fish was 8.30 Lbs. That warmed both of us up and we decided to keep at it a little bit longer.

Glad we did because he caught one more nice fish… this one weighed 9.90 Lbs. Our fish count for the day ended at 34 but neither of us complained.

The final tally for the trip was 171 bass over 2 ½ days of fishing.  Only about half as many as we usually get, but Bruce had caught 4 trophy fish including the second and fourth largest fish of his 70+ year bass fishing career.  I had been worried that we lost all of the jumbo bass in the lake in 2021 during the fish kill, but I guess I was wrong. 

One other interesting observation was noted in the fish we were catching.  Several had the tails of a recent meal protruding from their guts.  They were not eating bluegills, rather they had feeding on large shad, around 6 inches long.  No wonder the jumbo swim baits were so effective.  Once again I will be buying a selection of very large lures for our next fish spanking.

Just got back from an 8 day rafting trip floating over 250 miles down the Grand Canyon. It was hot, but fortunately when whitewater rafting you get wet frequently to compensate. The water temps in the river are normally about 45 degrees, but this trip they were closer to 60 due to the hot weather. The water started out clear but after a few downstream thunderstorms caused the side canyons to flood, the further downstream we went, the more the water looked like chocolate milk. Since we had no showers, we had to bathe in the river. Drinks were kept cool by dragging them in a mesh bag in the river. Our daily ice allocation was one cube each when we had an “end of day” adult beverage. We slept on cots, with Laurel inside a small tent, while I slept outside under the stars. Unfortunately, just after we arrived in Vegas, Laurel received an MRI report which confirmed that she had a tear in her right rotator cuff confirming the cause of her shoulder pain and leaving her with only one functional arm. My knees are still pretty sore from all the hiking and climbing needed to set up our campsite and visit some of the waterfalls inside the canyon. All said, despite our age related infirmities and rough conditions, this was the trip of a lifetime. There are no words to describe what its like to see the Grand Canyon this way.

After waiting about 5 months for fabrication, Pond King has delivered my new floating dock. A crew of 2 unloaded it off the truck and had it fully installed in about 3 hours. It is 40 feet long and floats to compensate for the changing lake level.

Laurel and I now have yet another nice spot to enjoy a glass or two of wine as the sun sets on the hills behind the ranch house.

The grape vines are growing 12-24 inches per week and almost every vine is producing grape clusters as you can see above. The heavy rains we are getting are not all that beneficial as they are washing off the fungicides and insecticides needed to protect the crop. We got about 3 1/2″ last week, and almost as much this week (so far). In another month or so, they should be nice and red and about ready to harvest. The lake is still overflowing the spillway.

Also picked up a new toy for the Toy Barn. This one is diesel powered, and actually has more carrying capacity than my F150.

We knew the forecast was calling for near zero temps at the ranch this week, but the prediction of 5-8” of snow trumped our better judgement. We prepared as best we could by shutting the water completely off at our Seabrook house, loading up on lots of microwave meals, and restocking tequila and wine. Sure enough, on Sunday night, with temps all day below freezing, it began sleeting. Just as we were getting off to sleep the rotating blackouts started. Fortunately, the local electric coop did a very good job of actually rotating. Most of the time we would be on for an hour, then off for half an hour. That was plenty of time for the central heat to recover.
Monday…
We got up Monday morning to another episode of Winter Wonderland. About 5” of snow had accumulated on the ground and temps were holding in the teens. This snow was unlike any I had seen before in Texas. Instead of soft fluffy snow, this was the dry powder kind you normally see in Colorado. It never warmed up all day, and by afternoon the shallow parts of our lake had sheets of ice forming.
When washing out my coffee cup I noticed that the water pressure seemed a little low. I checked the pump house and found zero water pressure on the line going to the cabin and house. I figured it might just be plugged with ice, but as I was starting to try and thaw the PVC line with a heat gun, I noticed nearly every fitting was busted. That was even with a heating element attached to the pipes and an extra electric heater temporarily running inside the pump house. We still had plenty of drinking water and ice for our drinks since I have a separate bottled water supply plumbed into the two refrigerators. However, taking a shower or flushing a commode was not going to happen until things thawed and I was able to make repairs. I had the parts needed on hand, but the forecast called for the earliest thaw to not occur until Saturday or Sunday.

Tuesday…
At about 7am Tuesday morning, the temps had dropped to 3 degrees. The lake had a solid sheet of ice over the entire 15 acres, except for a 20’ diameter circle over one of the deeper spots. In that circle of water were about 20 ducks swimming in circles to keep the water from freezing.
We toughed it out without running water until Tuesday afternoon when I had a MacGyver moment. I have a 30-gallon sprayer tank with a 12V pump that I can put in the back of a Mule. The free-flowing water well that feeds the lake with supplemental water was still running fine. And I had a hose bib connection inside the garage. All I had to do was shut the valve on the line coming from the pump house, fill the tank with water from the lake well, and connect it to the interior hose bib. First challenge was finding the shutoff valve from the pump house. Its in a valve box right next to the house and should have been obvious, but not today since it was under 5” of snow. I probed for 30 minutes trying to find it but no success. Finally, I pulled out my phone and looked at pictures I had taken earlier this year until I found one that showed the valve box. Once I new where to look, it was easy to clear the snow, open the top and shut it off. I quickly filled up the tank using the lake well, drove it into the garage, and hooked up the hose. Immediately the toilets filled up and started working, and both Laurel and I took hot showers.

Late Tuesday night things went downhill weather wise as freezing rain began to fall. Back in Seabrook, the power was off again, and neighbors were reporting lots of busted pipes especially on their pool equipment. The pool freeze protection depends on running the pumps, but with no electricity the pumps don’t run.

Wednesday…
When we got up Wednesday morning the freezing rain was still falling, and the weather station on our cabin showed that the temp was hovering about 33 degrees. It stayed that way all day. That said, there were still icicles hanging everywhere and the trees clearly had a good coating of ice. The rotating blackouts had shifted to as little as 30 min on, but the outage times were still holding steady at 30 min off. We had used up all the water in my storage tank, so I had to wait until later in the day when the freezing rain stopped to take and tank outside and refill. By the end of the day, the ice on the surface of the lake had started to recede some. When the sun set, we had about a dozen raccoons show up for dinner on the porch, including our favorite coon, “Girlfriend”. I am not sure if any of our porch kittys succumb to the cold weather, but we have found at least 3 birds frozen.
Unfortunately, we got calls from our neighbors back in Seabrook that our pool equipment had busted pipes as well as the backflow preventer on our sprinkler system. We were able to get the power to the pool turned off as well as the water going to the sprinkler system.

Thursday…
Temps dipped back below freezing to 16 degrees overnight. It also appeared that a little more snow and sleet had fallen overnight. The surface of the lake had a little more ice than it did the evening before. The best news of the day is that the rotating blackouts have ended. In fact the last outage was about 5pm on Wednesday. ERCOT is still calling for the rotating blackouts, but for some reason the coop that serves the ranch has not had to cut our service.

I have accumulated a number of large tractor “toys” and have been storing most of them outside. I had planned on building a new tractor barn early in 2020, but the Covid issue and concern over a financial collapse delayed the project until now. It took 8 days of work from start to finish and unfortunately it was very wet and muddy towards the end. But after I do a little power washing the next time I come up, I should be able to start moving implements into their new home.

The year is off to a good start. I managed to shoot 7 hogs so far, and I caught a 6lb+ bass already. And to top it all off… I am now scheduled to get my Covid vaccine next week.