Our July 4th Fishing Expedition

This is the first year that Chuck and I are not having to work on July 4th. So, we decided to make the most of the day.

We got up early and made breakfast. I got the boys up, PJ got up and dressed without a complaint about the early hour. Eric on the other hand, "It's only 6:21!" Yeah, well, if you want to go fishing, you get up early.

We got out of the house by 7 and on the road. The fog was heavy, but the air was night and light. No humidity that early, no one on the road at that time either.

We went to the same spot as we did the last time, the northwest end of the Hiwassee River. The water wasn't as clear as it was where we were the other day. This is a boat ramp and it gets a lot of junk in the water too.

We get there and all set up, we tried artificial bait first

and Chuck went to retrieve his misplaced hook, line and sinker.


He finally got it back


PJ took his usual place on the dock, Eric was at the other end. Somehow I end up in the middle.

For a while, Eric and I had one little bait stealer. Fast too. Before we knew it, something took off with all the bait on the hook. We finally did catch it, at the end of the day, Eric's last fish.

Now, I won't bait my hook. I don't care how much fun it looks, I won't do it. So, I recruit Eric to help me with it

I caught the most today, 6 total for me, 12 total for all of us. I caught a few Blue Gill and then this grabbed a hold of my hook and took off swimming.


Most of the day was pretty quiet. It was morning and there were lots of boats out on the water, and lots more heading out. So, the day wasn't as good as the last time we went.

At one point this is what we hear from PJ, "I caught something and I can't reel it in!" Ok, this is shallow water, we know there isn't a killer fish out there, and everything else we caught the last few times have been small Blue Gill or small Big Mouth Bass. But, noooo, he had to out do me, he caught a Big Mouth Bass

He used artificial bait with this, like he knew what he was doing. The hook got caught in the gill, and the fish nearly swallowed the bait. It impressed me how Chuck got the bait out before it got swallowed


Yep, that is a keeper!

We brought our basket with us to hang in the water, tied it up to the dock and hoped for a few more for dinner.

The rest of the day was rather dead, rather aggravating too. We tried worms and artificial bait, a few Blue Gill and that was about it.

But one boater came in and asked us if we were fishing for food. Chuck told him that we have one, but if we didn't get another it was going back. They offered us their 2 that they caught, it wasn't enough for them, but they were gonna throw them back. We took them. Two very nice size bass. The one took PJ for a boat ride around in front of us, he loved it, and then back to fishing.

I think I missed one bass because I wasn't paying attention to the bobber, I was cleaning up my tangled fishing line. Oh well, it happens.

Our day was coming to an end, it was noon and we were hungry. I started cleaning up when Chuck pulls this one up

The first time catching a catfish with worm and hook. It was a little too small, so it went back

But he did think about keeping it.

One last try to get rid of the bait and up comes our bait stealer. Fiesty little thing too.

It was time to go. Too many boats around us to really catch anything else. It was nearly 1 and lunch passed us by. Time to go home and clean fish.

I let Chuck do all that. He cleaned them, gutted them, washed them out and I put them in the freezer. We have 3 very nice size bass for dinner when we catch another one.

I love fishing and the time that we are spending with the boys. There are so many slef-absorbed parents, they only have time for themselves and they seem to forget about the kids.

I would much rather be like we are now, paying the bills, spending good quality time with the boys, then to be working to the point we were working, 70 hours a week for Chuck, who knows the hours that I was gonna work, have the money to buy whatever we want, but no time with the boys. We have to have our priorities straight, we had kids to be parents to, not just someone that comes in and they only see for a few hours a week, or someone they only talk to 7 minutes a week.

This is why we did what we did, started a business to be on our own, but to be parents to our children.