Tuttle Creek Fishing

James has a very rigorous schedule these days. He is up and out the door by five-thirty, is in class from 8-5 and then has to return for more studying after dinner. Because of this, we have to get creative when planning our family time. Yesterday evening James surprised us with the idea of spending our dinner break fishing. We were all tickled pink but probably no one more so than Mason! This boy has really taken to the sport and can now do nearly everything by himself. And boy is he pleased with himself! You've probably heard of whistling a happy tune, but when Mason's happy (which is about 99% of the time) he deedles a happy tune. It consists of about three notes and a whole bunch of D's. It goes something like this: "Deedee-diddly-dee. Dee-dum-diddly-dee!"You can hear him happily deedle away throughout the day but when he's really excited, his deedles turn into rapid fire! Last night was no exception!

This drum was huge! Probably at about two to three pounds! Mason was beyond pleased with himself. While he was reeling him in, he said, "This one's a big one! Three hundred and fifty dollars!" I have no idea where that came from.

 Char kept catching catfish of all sizes.

 James, removing the hook from one of the catfish

 Char liked catching the fish, but even more, he likes playing with the fish for a little while after. Lucky for everyone, catfish are amazingly tough little buggers. Thank goodness, since Char's releases around the most gentle. Boy does that little guy have a good throw!

 Mason can now do almost all of his fishing prep work by himself. Char and McCabe are happy to let Poppy do it for them while they explore.

 McCabe decided to try his hand at the sport.... but ended up spending the rest of the time rooting around for food.

 Cabe

 We found this HUGE dead carp a little ways down from us on the bank. Just slightly too big for Mason's net

 Our Tom Sawyer

 If Mason's Tom Sawyer, then Char is Chuckleberry Finn....and he almost got swallowed whole in a little quicksand/mudsand patch. No joke! He was up to his waist when I heaved him out of there! Luckily he made it out with his shorts (partially) in tack! :)

 This is a bluegill fish but Mason thought it should be called a checkered fish due to his cool scales.

 Right before heading out, Mason found a little crawdad. Hot dog!

Our view from the dock. That floaty thing is a fish feeder that goes off every so often to keep the fish happy. Mason thinks he's the worlds greatest fisherman, but we don't have the heart to tell him that this feeder should be getting most of the credit.