well now i i have a question for you do you like uh fresh water fishing or salt water fishing
okay
i like well what i usually do is fresh water fishing i haven't been salt water fishing since i was about ten
is that right
yeah and i do everything up at Lake Texoma oh yeah i'm a striper fisherman
oh you do okay
oh where do you fish for striper there
oh everywhere wherever those little suckers are
but uh we camp at the lodge Texoma State Park
okay
over on the Oklahoma side and uh but usually when we go striper fishing when i go out for the big ones we travel down the you know where the channel is down the middle of the lake
oh
um-hum
uh-huh pretty much
we usually chase them down through there
okay so you're out in a boat then
oh yeah oh yeah do you ever go up there
oh
i've gone up there camping like at Eisenhower State Park and i've observed fishing but i've never actually fished there
uh-huh
oh it's good fishing up there
yeah
so you like to go for striper then
yeah of course i won't you know i won't throw anything back
well the time i went and watched i went over to the uh to the dam and it was right after
one of the major major rains that we'd had uh in fact i think it had been over the spillway recently when we went it was back down but uh some of the roadblocks were still up or there was evidence of them
oh yeah
uh-huh
and people were they really had the gates open
oh my gosh that's supposed to be the greatest time to fish
big time
well i couldn't believe some of the striper that these people were pulling out and there were just people galore for that matter just just everywhere just huge fish
yeah
oh yeah
oh yeah
it's fun well my dad got me hooked on it
so to speak
and uh yeah oh God pun pun and uh we'd go out he liked to go out about five thirty and you know watch the sun come up every morning and uh boy we
all right
we knew a bunch of the striper guides and and so we'd follow them and he had a CB on the boat and all that kind of stuff and we'd just follow the channel and when it's you know
middle July through late August when it's so hot they stay down real deep all the big ones do yeah follow that channel on up
deep in the channel huh
i'll be
but uh so now my cousin will i make him get up early in the morning and take me out striper fishing and then we usually fish under the bridge at night with the kids and his wife and stuff like that because where we go a lot of times
oh wow
uh the waves are so big i don't want my kids out there because it's sort of dangerous but i love it i love it
right
well i used to fish go every summer to northern Canada
oh really
and so i i've been spoiled by that uh but i had a string of seven or eight years in a row
oh
of uh sort of a close knit group we would just hop in the car and drive straight through two thousand miles
oh how much fun
and uh we started out fishing out of a lodge and then we started uh either taking our own canoes or renting them
when we got there and hitting a few of the
oh my goodness
you know smaller lakes along the river chain and uh catch Northern Pike and walleye primarily
uh-huh
oh my goodness
and sometimes Lake Trout also
oh how much fun
so we'd always go the first week in June you know essentially as soon as school was out and everything is all over and done we'd uh we go uh
uh-huh
course one year i went two weeks too early with a friend that was he at this point he'd graduated from college and was in the Army and
he had a two week period he he had to work with before he got shipped off to Germany
oh my goodness
and so i went with him in the middle of May and much to our surprise when we got there all the lakes were still frozen no yeah the first week we were there we just had to camp and
oh you're kidding ooh not for me
uh we could go on the streams they were open up you know the flowing where the water was flowing but the lakes themselves were still iced over for the whole yeah whole first week we were there
uh-huh
oh my gosh
ooh
but then the next week they were just just like day and night difference we had some rain and wind and it it cleared all the lakes off and uh you know the fishing was already really picking up but uh
uh-huh
those were my favorite fishing trips the most serious fishing i guess i've done
yeah yeah when i take the kids out like i say we in fact Memorial Day weekend we went up to the lake and uh
my cousins have a boat my boat is sitting in my driveway not running and uh so we go up there and we decided
oh
that we'd you know go out first we got everybody's tents up and camp made and all that and said come on let's go fishing we hauled in well we brought in
thirty three fish and we had thrown a bunch of little ones back
good grief
yeah
and uh so then we had a huge fish fry the next afternoon and we went back out fishing and we caught and brought in thirty three more and had thrown a bunch of the little ones back but we had more fun those kids
wow
they've got real fishing poles but they're the little short ones
right
and it was so funny because i mean they'd just be hanging over the side of the boat mom i think i got a fish i think i got a fish oh it was hysterical but
that's incredible
boy
Jamie's getting to the age now that when i get up and go fishing early in the morning he wants to go too you know he doesn't want to get left behind anymore
oh boy
yeah
so it's getting a little difficult to do that but
we love it we just love it
well i need to break my kids in they i have a son you know Wesley that enjoys it but he hasn't really caught enough fish to appreciate any fishing so i i'd like to break them in a little bit
uh-huh
uh-huh
well i have to watch it because Ashley'll out fish her brother half the time and so you know that gets a little sore
uh-oh
yeah
but where we camp there there's a you know little bit of a inlet where we park the boats and stuff so real early in the morning before it gets hot and then you know right at dusk
uh-huh
um down in the trees down there boy all those little sunfish come up and they'll go down there while i'm cooking dinner and just start reeling those little babies in and they ha ve more fun with that
right
huh
what do they use for bait
oh usually i'll buy them a thing of worms or a lot of times i'll just give them a piece of bacon and they're taught they'll tear up bacon and stick it i mean those they'll they'll bite empty hooks that's what's so funny
yeah
good grief
and when we're out chasing the big stripers we use those perch for bait
yeah use the little ones for bait yeah why not
yeah it's great
oh me
but we just love it up there in fact Jamie wanted to go up this weekend with it being fourth of July weekend but uh i can't put the tent up and all that kind of stuff quite yet i'm still pretty sore
fourth of July yeah
oh me
so anyway but
have you been um salt water fishing
i haven't really done any of that uh and oddly enough uh Jackie's parents live on the the Carolina beach in North Carolina and and we've i guess we went out one time
right
oh my goodness
and just fished you know from the shore like in the winter you know one Christmas trip
uh-huh
but other than that that's really been it yeah they uh i've always wanted to actually go out in the boat i think i went out on a a snapper party boat in the Gulf once upon a time but uh and i was i was too sick to
yeah
uh-huh
to to enjoy that
right
