I bought into the Labor Day fishing tourney at the county lake yesterday, just for kicks and giggles. I haven't been there since last fall, but Mike and Ted (the brothers who manage it for the state) still remembered me by name and were wondering what happened to me. I filled them in, and Mike cringed about every third word (Ted was too busy watching the Alabama game on TV to listen). The fishing was El Stinko Gordo, but I pulled out early when my back started to protest, and my legs didn't appreciate the prolonged standing, either. I'm still feeling it. It was the first real fishing I've gotten to (or felt good enough for) this year, and I forgot to take a camp chair with me. It's kind of like shooting - if it's been a while, you gotta get your sights readjusted on your gun and get your eye back, and I was there as much to test everything I'd busted up as I was to compete. But, it knocked the rust off, the weather was nice for a change, and it was good to get back out on the water again. I left all my gear in the car because I thought I might log an hour or two over at West Point Lake today, but the weather had been threatening to turn sour since this morning, and finally did. (Cooler out there, though.) There weren't but about a dozen people on the tournament roster when I registered, and only one piddling little dink weighed and measured. If I'd have gotten out there earlier in the day when it was cooler and the sun was low, I'd have had a fighting chance. Unfortunately, our resident refugees decided to spend the holiday weekend up in north Georgia, and were underfoot and getting in my hair and on my nerves all morning. My welcome mat is wearing a little thin at this point.
Well, time to empty the trash and hit the shower before The Queen comes rolling in the door. Be back to join you with a cold one of my own later.
Good luck.