As a primer to our "Day on the Lake LIVE" next Wednesday, I fished this past Monday down at Fayette County Lake. I went with a couple of friends — Neil Meske, who is a physical therapist here in town, and Bryan Carter, who is a store director for an Academy Sports and Outdoors in Temple, Texas. They both go to my church, and we've had this trip planned for a while. They've had their days off marked for a few weeks, so there was no cancelling for the weather.
Naturally, it was brutal! We picked the worst weather day of the year so far. There was a major front that moved through, the temperatures were in the 40s all day and falling, and there were north winds gusting to 35 mph. Needless to say, we were the only boat on the lake the entire day. There are not many days you can say that about Fayette. It's halfway between Houston and Austin and has good fishing, so it's a very popular destination, especially this time of year because it's a hot water lake. Some of the best days I've ever had on Fayette were days that it was miserable to be out there.
On this trip we caught about 35 bass, and the biggest was a hair under 6 pounds. We had 20 fish in the 4- and 5-pound class, and I think I caught one dink all day. Fayette never disappoints in size or numbers. If you like to throw lipless crankbaits and swimbaits, this is the place to be. Take a look at the picture of Bryan and me. He's got a 4-pounder.
We'll catch them a bunch of different ways. If you're a B.A.S.S. Insider, you'll be able to type in questions live while I'm fishing, and I'll answer as many of them as I can.
Plus, the day before I'll be hosting a Bassmaster University. The topic will be stickworms — specifically Yum Dingers. The first 30 minutes or so will be me lecturing about them, and the last half hour will be a Q&A session. Once again, only Insiders will be able to ask questions, but you can watch right here on Bassmaster.com.
All in all, it will be an exciting week, and I'm really looking forward to it. On another note, Kristen, my middle child and oldest daughter, turns 16 in a few weeks. Jimmye Sue and I have been secretly in the market for a car for her. We had an old jalopy at the house, and had Kristen convinced that it would be her car. We let her believe that, and she was fine with it. But Jimmye Sue and I knew all along that we were going to get her something more fun to drive.
I happened to find the perfect car in Houston. It's a 2003 BMW with 15,000 miles on it. I picked it up earlier this week, and decided to surprise her early with it because it'd be hard to hide in the driveway.
The way we gave it to her was kind of fun. There's a church down the street that always has an empty parking lot, so I dropped the car off there and Little Alton took me home. I told Kristen that we should practice her parallel parking in that parking lot for her driving exam. When we got there the BMW was sitting there. I told her to park around it. She was all freaked out because she was afraid to hit the shiny BMW with the jalopy we were in. After she parked a few times, she said how it was hard to park the big, old car around the little one and how it would be easier to do it the other way around. I tossed her a key and told her to give it a shot. She didn't believe me at first. She thought I had borrowed it and was playing very cruel joke on her.
It took about 30 minutes of convincing before she realized she had gotten a BMW for her Sweet 16. She is a wonderful daughter, and has a history of making really good choices in life, so this is a way that Jimmye Sue and I could demonstrate our appreciation to her for being a great daughter. Happy birthday, Kristen!