CHURCH UNDER THE BRIDGE!!!!

One of our favorite TightLine Catfish Fry Events

WHAT BLESSING!!! ALL DaGrandkids!!! Helping serve catfish - Church Under the Bridge 

Harper, Addelyn, Maisie, Owen and Wilder

Church Under the Bridge (CUB) is actually a CHURCH UNDER a Bridge at I35 and 4th Street in Waco!  Jimmy and Janet Dorrell started the Church back in 1992.  

Jimmy likes to say in over 30 years, we grew from a single bridge Church to a multi-billion dollar Two Bridge church! 

(with help from taxpayers!) 

The Dorrells are a blessing to the Waco Community!

Black, White, and Brown, rich and poor, educated in the streets or the university, all serving the same God, who makes us one... EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

Servers in the Front...

Thats my Mom, Leni (holding our granddaughter) Maisie, 

and our granddaughters: Harper and Addelyn

Fryers in the back!

That's Rick, Carl Bowen (Cindy's husband!!!), Bob Cervenka, and a TightLine Fan inspecting the Catfish

Best day ever - Mom, Leni with our grandaughter Maisie  

So much fun, this is my Mom, behind her is Cindy (aka. INCREDIBLE Catfish fry organizer/helper and keeper of Carl!), and my Leni w/assistant to the assistants - granddaughter Maisie

This is my Alex posing for a quick pic!  

On her right are Addelyn and her daughter Harper 

and on her left are Owen and her son Wilder. 

What a blessing to have the family and friends out helping!

Two of the best (grandsons) Boys EVER - Wilder and Owen are helping serve!

DaFryers (Police line up left to right):

Bob Cervenka, me, Rick King, and Mike Charette

The congregation varies from Sunday to Sunday - but, this one had a little over 100+

TIGHTLINE ADDITION:

The newest dog addition to the Foster Family - DazyDoodleDug... 

she'll be on the TightLine Catfish boat soon! 

 

FUNNY THING ABOUT MEMORIES...!

Sometimes you do not realize you're making them...

Seems like yesterday my grandson's Mom (Alex) accidentally backed our Dodge Ram into Lake Waco after I had the great idea of asking her to back it up a little so that I could launch the boat... after I got the kids and Sassy out of the back wet seat I swore id never let something like that happen again... Here is Wilder (8-yr-old grandson) and I reenacting the fun times 20+ years later!!! 

NOT EVERYONE gets to skipper the USS Sassy.

Here is Wilder searching out a Catfish spot on a cloudy Lake Belton catfishing Friday. 

The real teachers had a student-free day at school - so, I am the lucky teacher today!

He has the catfishing-hunting gene - so does his dad!  

So much fun!  We caught a mess of them (10 Channel and Blues) weighing in at 26lbs!

Speaking of memory - I knew that I had forgotten something and as I topped the lonnnnng boat ramp at Roger Park - I heard someone yelling... KPA! KPA! KPA!

 

Whats better than a smile...?

Here is brother Rick holding on to a 8.8 lbs Blue Cat

This is a mess of Cats we caught on Lake Belton Sep. 12 

Total of 13 Cats 49.5 pounds - on Hot Dogs!

25 feet of 83 degree water

Yours truely and Captain of the USS Sassy - 

Sporting a TightLine Cap and Horizon Aviation work shirt provided by A&P Harry Foster

This a 7.11 lbs Blue Cat...

SIDE NOTE: The BTN (By The Numbers) column is showing the Cats are BIG THIS YEAR!!!

 Catfishing Lake Belton - on a COOL September morning!

This is just another GREAT EARLY MORNING at Lake Belton!

EVERY MORNING is a picture from GOD!!!

BELIEVE IT OR NOT - the weather was COOL this morning!

Caught these Cats (Blue and Channel) out of Lake Belton in 25-30 feet of water... 

18 total with a combined weight of 57 lbs... 

We are getting ready for our annual Church Under the Bridge Fish Fry. 

What bait you ask... our SUPER SECRET bait - HOTDOGS (the cheapest ones).  

This is a 17.5 lbs BlueCat... I call this a Cervenka-Me-Cry Cat  - 

TightLineCatishing policy -we throw back ALL Cats over 15lbs... 

It makes my fishing buddy Bobbert Cervenka cry EVERY TIME!

LUCKIEST KPa EVER!!!

I am the luckiest KPa EVER!!!!!

Here is Maizie Sager!  

Our FIFTH Grandkid - we are VERY BLESSED!

Here's Ashley (my daughter) and Maizie's Mom!

It's been said, "Never have children, only grandchildren"  

I have to disagree - I am so blessed with the best three kids and five grandkids a guy could EVER have!

Lake Waco on a 2023 Summer night!

I could never in a hundred Summers get tired of sunsets like this!

 

YES! There are other fish besides CATFISH in those waters!!!

Here are two fantastic fishermen! 

My grandson, Owen aka..."SRC-Super RedFish Catcher" 

and his dad, Nick aka... "Pull'm out easy Sager!!!"  

This Redfish was caught on a shrimp and was just over the limit size - so he got a reprieve!

My incredible grandaughter Addelyn

This bass never had a chance with this World Class Fishing Angler on the lake!

Even the Bass fear this mom!!!  My daughter Ashley in action on Inks Lake!

That lure is the Foster Family Favorite: Hootn-Nanny Bomer Badonk-a-donk

 

 This is by far one of the rarest sightings - ESPECIALLY this time of the year!

This is a Lake Waco Water Moccasin

My friend Kevin Krumm found this one - he and I use to hunt for snakes and lizards as kids.

He seemed to be the one that found most of the critters... 

Thanks for sending this to me Kev!

            I am pretty sure this is the best time of the year in Texas for almost anything! 

I think my favorite color in Texas is December...

This is one of our favorite "Honey Holes" - we have caught a lot of catfish in this area...

We also see a bunch of great wildlife while waiting on the bites!

Lake Waco is beautiful

The trees are turning colors - my great uncle Bill (Bryant) once said, "Fall is the year's last loveliest smile!" 

There is something about watching a bobber that just makes you forget about "unimportant stuff!"

Catching catfish or not - its great to be on the lake!

THREE CATFISHING TIPS WITH RICK, ROXY, and me.

Here are some BASIC guidelines for catching the three most common Texas Catfish: Blues, Channels, and Flatheads. 

Tip one. Good things come to those who BAIT!!! The following list is a guideline - BUT REMEMBER, we have caught all three types of catfish on Shad, Worms, Perch, Stink baits, and our SSB (super secret bait: HOTDOGS)...  

• Blues love FRESH shad (they will eat previously frozen shad - but, fresh is better).
• Channels will dine on stinky bait and worms all-day
• Flat Heads like perch, shad, crawfish, and even smaller catfish.                                                                
  

It is true that Catfish eat stuff off the bottom - but not always!  They are skilled hunters and have hundreds of thousands of tastebuds all over their bodies - some say they are the equivalent of a swimming tongue!    

Tip two. Some say the very best time to catfish is when the barometric pressure is kinda low (29.70/30.40) this when there may be a chance of rain...

Hot or cold REMEMBER THIS: Every day is a fishing day, but not every day is a catching day!

Tip three. Vary the depths - oxygen in the water is critical... catfish will hang out in oxygen-rich 70-80 degree water (cold water holds more oxygen).  Our average depth in Lake Waco for catching fish is 15-20 feet.  Lake Belton 20-25 feet.

Tip four. Most important: 

PRAY

 It was either my famous almost-uncle Alton Jones (great fisherman) or my Catfishing Buddy, Bob Cervenka that once said, "To me, a catfishing buddy is a much more esteemed relationship than a friend!"

Went out on Bob's Barge Boat to do some jugline catfishing - WOW! What a GREAT TIME!!! 

If you've ever Jugline Catfished before you know half the battle is chasing down the successful jugs as they spread out across the lake! 

We caught two REALLY big Gar and two REALLY big Catfish.  

This Cat weighed in at 22lbs! Caught on Lake Waco with live hand size perch.

 

WE COULD NOT PASS UP THIS AWESOME TEXAS WEATHER!!!

TightLine is back on the water...

Rick and I were so lucky to have our good friend and CATFISH GURU go out on the USSS Sassy with us...

the one and only DALE EVANS!

 

Dale is a tennis and fishing friend from WAY BACK THERE!!!

He and his wife Robin were active members (family) of the Charlie McCleary Tennis Center and helped me host MANY tournaments over the years. 

MANY YEARS AGO, Dale took me out on a catfishing trip and taught me the importance of the almighty drain plug - 

somewhere in my excitement of going fishing with the GREAT Dale Evans

I forgot to handle the ONLY job he gave me - "Put in the Drain Plug...!"

A VERY short time into catfishing, he said and I quote,  "Kevin, why are my feet wet...?"

    

Now, I wear a new hat...

Some might say, "Water under the bridge..."

Here are co-captains Rick and Dale waiting on the Catching to begin...

So we baited and baited and baited... 

and then we went to the Higher Power we came up short on the catfishing poles on this day - but, pulled in a bunch on the trotlines.  We will return with lessons learned...