What a Spring

Well folks I am sorry for my absence but I have been teaching Maymester and Summer classes. I am not complaining but it does get hectic at times. I have not been doing a great deal of fishing, I have however, gone out and have rustled up a few fishin here and there.

On the lighter side a few days ago I had a birthday and was humbled by my family, friends, and my mother in-law went above and beyond and fed all of my guests. I was really humbled by all of the people that attended and more importantly I realise what good family and friends I have up here and how my home is now here and not Laredo, Texas.

I decided to quit fighting the duality of South Texas and Fort Worth that creates so many emotional problems for me and enjoy the great things and people I have here that genuinely care about me.

To my wife, children, Lori, and my good friends who attended... I am forever in gratitude.

Ruby Tuesday

Well, how do I even begin. After a day of finals I get a call from my daughter, who was in hysterics. Our dachshund Ruby has cancer... The terminal kind, bleeding badly internally and blood platelet count was at 6k, (should be 250K for a dog the vet said) her blood was so thin she was bleeding out of some of her pores.

I asked the vet how we could not have detected it and she said it was in her spleen and that is just too aggressive and rapid to detect at times.She noted, surgery to remove the tumor on her spleen and chemo would run about 5k, however, she said she was not willing to give it a try because she would more than likely bleed to death and would also needed a blood transfusion noting her survival rate was non-existent.

So we agreed to put her down, we spent a good hour with her, the kids wanted some individual alone time. After we decided where and what to do with her after all was said and done. She seemed fine at times and labored at others but happy we were all there. We asked if we could take her home and let her expire there but the vet said she would not make it through the night and that she would more than likely bleed to death internally before the morning and that it would be painful for Ruby and messy.

They fed her a fine last meal, one of those high dollar $12.00 tin canned meals for fancy dogs, wait Ruby was a high dollar dog bought by a working class family. Then they took her and placed an I.V. on her and brought her back, we said our final emotional good byes and my daughter Emily, the one we got her for 10 years ago held her while they sedated her, Ruby lie there so very trusting, her eyes glazing over as she slipped into a heavy sleep, her body becoming limp and lifeless as they finally administered the drug that stopped her heart. Emily later told me, as her hand was placed on Ruby's chest that she felt her racing heart suddenly become still.

In less than a minute we lost a decade of happiness, suddenly the kids, my ex-wife, and I became a mass of emotion as we struggled with the loss of a family member. We all would gladly re-sacrifice the chewed shoes, rod handles, toys, socks, and pet accidents to have Ruby one more week, but that's life.

The void is there folks and Ruby now rests in my kids backyard where she gave the possums and rabbits hell, wrapped in my son's and her favorite blanket. In a few months Emily is going to plant a cherry blossom tree there to mark the spot. Folks, I brought his dog home in my coat pocket Christmas 1999 and I buried her a few hours ago, 100 dachshunds could never replace Ruby Tuesday, too bad she could not have waited until tomorrow and she would have played into the song she was named after.

Good bye Ruby Tuesday, you will be missed.


My last photos with Ruby at the vet...

Winter Catfishing 2008-2009

Some buddies of mine kept asking me to catfish with them this year and I was a bit reluctant. They told me I would not regret it once I hook up with a 30 plus pound blue and that once I did there would be no going back. So after much contemplation I decided to give it a try, I bought some catfish rigs and followed along to see how this would work out.

Before we did anything Paul, Greg, and I hit Lake Benbrook for shad, we froze some in case the they became hard to find. In all we must have accumulated 25 pounds of threadfin and gizzard shad and froze them in lake water.

In early November I took my first trip, a lone trip to Ray Roberts, I really did not know what I was doing I just looked for blues on deep humps and ridges. I found this hump in 26 feet of water and cast out in several directions and steady caught channels and blues for 4-5 hours but nothing phenomenal. But I can say I did not get skunked.

A few weeks after that I went out with my good friend and fishing guide Lane Lutke, not a paid trip but a friends trip. We headed to lake Ray Roberts and he began to show me what he knew. It did not take long to hook our first blue and the fishing was pretty steady for 3-4 hours. The winds were really stiff that day and if went from mildly cold to cold all day. We were able to get a few double digit blues but nothing over 15 pounds. I still learned quite a bit and we did get a mess of blues to bring home.

Lance with the day's tally

Lance's big blues of the day, they were released.

Well I must say after the trip with Lance I was hooked, and surprisingly enough the next week I went out with Paul Rich a buddy of mine I met online. He had been telling me about Lake Tawakoni and how it held huge blues and that, that was where we were going to get our 20 pounder. You see, Paul and I set out goal at a 20 pound blue... Funny how we can set a goal when we have so little control over fishing but we can always narrow the odds and lean them in our favor. We headed out to Twok and it was blowing to 20 mph and even though we could get around the waves were beating us to a pulp. Nonetheless, we managed some decent fish and a bunch of 5-7 pound cats but no monster blues.

I will let Paul chime in on the stringer debacle.

Big fish of the day 15 pound blue.

More later I am off to church.

Sorry for the absence but I have been really busy, however, I am back to post the remaining information for this kitty post. Lance, Paul, Greg and I continued to fish for the remining Winter season and we did fair or I would say good for newbies. We racked up a total of 1/2 dozen or so 30 pound blue cats and I even held a 9 day lake record fo blue catfish at Ray Roberts. In all I learned more than I could possibly eve tought I would learn about Winter catfishing and am eager for next year's season.

One of the good things about Winter catfishing is the absence of boaters on the lake but the grudge of it is the windy and awfully cold spells that are common in North Texas. Nonetheless, here is a mess of photos of this Winter's fish.

Lance and his 30 pound Tawokoni blue cat.

My son Peter with his 10 pound Ray Roberts blue cat Jr. lake record.

My 28.66 Ray Roberts blue cat, lake record for 9 day. A 56 pound blue replaced it, so it looks like Ray Bob has monster blue kitties.

Paul on a very cold Tawakoni morning.

My Tawokoni 30 pound blue

Lance and a 30 pound Twok blue

Greg and a 30 pound Benbrook blue

Greg and a 28 pound Benbrook blue

Lance and a customer with a 18 pound Ray Bob blue.

30 pound Benbrook blue



Paul and 22 pound Cooper Lake blue cat

Fishing Journal

Hello folks I am Armando VIllarreal III, an avid fisherman who starting this online fishing journal in order to document my fishing outings and experiences and to keep track of the fishing I do throughout the year.

In addition to this I will post tips and humble advice on fishing and my experiences with products and methods used while fishing.

I will start a condensed post on my previous fishing experiences and then start transferring some of my paper journal experiences online hopefully catching up in a week or two.

Why a journal?

Many years ago, I would say over 25 years I made my first trip to Alaska and had a great trip. When I returned I was chatting with hunter and gun enthusiast extraordinaire Ed Beckelheimer and he told me "Mandito, write it down somewhere, because someday you will forget". Well as time passed, Beck passed on and I contemplated writing my experiences down but I never did so. Well, behold, there are times I now forget or mix events up or even combine them into one. I tell myself I do so because there are so many but it is because I am forgetting. So Beck, 25 years later, here I am writing it down

If this blog helps one person to find fish or to gain some knowledge in the fishing world, then my journal is a success...