Woo Hoo – Here Comes November!

I gotta tell ya, I’m as excited as a kid at Christmas, and November is still a couple of weeks away.  November is always a special month for me―great weather, great fishing, and hunting season. The whistle of wings across the decoy spread in predawn light has the same effect on me as the grunt of a rutting whitetail or a bugling bull elk. It stirs something deep within our soul―kinda the way a big trout crashes a topwater and threatens to yank the rod from your hands. And then comes Thanksgiving.

I have to chuckle every time I tell this story. It was November, maybe 1999, just Josh and I in the Matagorda Island marsh. He pleaded with Pam to let him skip school and join me for a weekend at Fish Camp. He might have been in seventh grade―plum eat up with fishing and hunting―the way every boy that age ought to be.

We had just finished a duck hunt and were hoping for a redfish for our lunch. He was on the bow of the airboat throwing a chartreuse Top Dog, equally intent on eavesdropping my telephone conversation. A nice redfish had found the Top Dog and was swimming toward us, although Josh was not yet aware. As I ended my phone call he turned back to his fishing.

“Hey Look,” he shouted. “There’s a redfish and it has a Top Dog. Just like mine. IT IS MINE!” Everything happened in a blur after that. He was trying to set the hook with a bunch of slack in the line, reeling frantically and jerking the rod like he was having a seizure. He finally came tight with the fish that miraculously managed to stay hooked; which was a stroke of luck. And that was when he took one final step backward and ran out of deck―and luck.

Knee-deep in marsh mud―waist-deep in water―redfish doing its best to get the Hell out of Dodge. The look on his face was as priceless as the redfish lunch was delicious. We lazied around camp till about 4:00 and then headed down to Welder Flats for another redfish.

Perusing all the material our writers sent in for this issue has the hair standing on the back of my neck, and I pray it does the same for you. I hope you will find time to make some memories of your own this month. And by all means, take a kid fishing.

That young boy that tumbled off the bow of my airboat is on the water with his own family today. Just the way it ought to be. 

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless!