For this CHRISTMAS BLOG -

I am sharing a TightLine SECRET and sending Pictures of the Grandkids... what a combo! 

You will NOT have to work to find the family pictures! 

BUT, you will have to work to find out what the secret catfish bait is... 

the common question we always get is, "how do guys catch so many Catfish?"

 

FIRST - THE FAMILY...

Harry and KPa! - I have to say - my kids and NOW - Grandkids are gifts beyond compare.

Even though I have to stand on my tippy-toes... he is a GREAT son and buddy!

 

Will, Harper and Ali!  The Chandlers had a wonderful first Christmas with Harper!

Here is my ONE YEAR-OLD Grand-baby Addy getting ready for Christmas in England!!!!

Addy - helping her mom with cookies before Christmas

This picture of Addy is an EXACT replica of My Ashy when she was Addys age!!

Harper enjoying her first Christmas and Nanny and PAPA's house!!!

My dad - PAPA and his great granddaughter Harper!

Here is a picture of two incredible Moms!  Alex and my Mom with Harper

Addy Girl - shopping with her Mum (BTW- that is very English for Mom)

 

AND NOW TIGHTLINE STUFF....

the secret is about to be revealed

This seven pounder was caught Sunday, in 14 feet of water, the day before the cold weather rolled into Central Texas.  We have been waiting for less windy days to hit the lake... hopefully- we'll be out there this week - early in the mornings.

Here is a total of 16 fish Sassy sniffed out. We caught these between the twin bridge pillars on Lake Waco.

The Second PART of the secret was revealed in the previous picture... look close.

The First and most important is making sure Sassy's nose is working...

 

Here is a quick Grandma saying about bait...and I quote, "Even if we fished all day and haven't gotten anything except sunburned - we are much better off than the worm!" 

Simple but true!

TIGHTLINE FISHING IS BACK - but before I show pictures of BIG FISH, SASSY, RICK and the GREAT OUTDOORS - you'll have to indulge me for a minute while I preview the up and coming crew of the USS SASSY....  

 

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS A SERIES OF PICTURES SHOWING FUTURE TIGHTLINE FISHING STARS....

This is Harper (AKA- I see the fish over there KPa) - daughter of Will and Alex Chandler.

This is Harper and Alex...  SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY - Alex was this size!!! 

AND here is ADDY - she is ONE YEAR OLD!!!  She already knows her "SIC'm" sign.

She is a very Happy girl!  This reminds me of Ash when she was a baby.

I am pretty sure this Alex's way of having fun mom and daughter time!!!!

There is something special about those Harper eyes!

Here is Nick, Addy and Ash - Nick is an Officer in the Air Force (Captain) - Nick, Ash and Addy are serving our Country in England. 

I really miss them!
 

OK - and now a few TightLine Pictures...

I had a few friends of TightLine Fishing ask me to send some Sassy pictures and update the status of Tightline Fishing... SO, in an effort to PLEASE

SHES BACK!!!! Sassy is back and her snorter is better than EVER! We started out this morning a little unsure of the spot we were going to fish/attack and then out of nowhere - Sassy let us know we were over a bunch of these 1 and 2 pound cats....

We waited out the evening and FINALLY we hooked into this...

 



A twenty-two pound cat that I am sure was full of eggs - to my surprise it only took 45 minutes and very few tears from Rick to convince him that we had (Tightline rules) to release her.  (Be sure to read the "Positive Quotes" section on the right...)

 

It was GREAT to get back out on the lake with Rick and Sassy. Since the last BLOG we have catered about a dozen Catfish Fry's - our supply was needing to be restocked. 

 

Whether we go out early...

Or Late.... IT NEVER GETS OLD just PRETTIER!!!!

 

For my Tennis Official friends - I have added a "Play On!" section to the Blog... enjoy and let me know your thoughts....

 

 

PLEASE INDULGE TEAM TIGHTLINE 

We promise to return to catfish blogging soon...

Team TightLine has been on a vacation of sorts for the past few weeks! 

Our family is GROWING! 

INTRODUCING....

HARPER ELIZABETH CHANDLER

Harper was born Apr 23.  She weighed in at 6lbs. 9oz. and was 19" long.

Proud family: Alex, Wilder, and Harper Chandler

Uncle Harry, Harper and Alex

Cousins - Harper and Addy are getting some rest - because they know KPa is already making fishing plans!

Here is Ash and Addy back in Shalimar, Florida after coming home to Waco for the birth of Harper.

Great BaBa's:  Here is Leni's mom holding Addy and my mom holding Harper

Harper and my dad - a very proud Great Grandpa

Leni and Harper - one word - BEAUTIFUL

 

In this pic I am holding Harper and here is one of Addy putting her hand on mine. 

Ali and Wilder - they are already awesome parents!

 

I am looking forward to this chapter...

RAIN! RAIN! RAIN! - Me, Alex, Sas and a YELLOW CAT!!!

RAIN! RAIN! RAIN!

Central Texas is getting WET!

We need the rain but, it slows down the early morning fishing and puts Sas in a very bad mood.  Now all she does is sit around and read books about fishing!   

Its not raining to much yet but, my daughter Alex and I, will be ready if it gets out of control!

This is NOT typical gear you have to wear if you go out fishing with us.

This was the last fish we caught before the big rain came in this morning! 

This is a 2lb -VERY YELLOW Catfish. 

I have never seen one this yellow - so we released it. 

We caught 10 keepers, for about 16 lbs., in 15 feet of water, on Rick's Super Secret Stink Bait.

Marching into Lots-O-Fish!!! And .............. Possible Sniffer Problems...

As you can see, Rick is on a Mission to catch fish - he has that look that says -

"IF YOU ARE OUT THERE - WE WILL FIND YOU!"

Well, we found fish - including this 12 pound Buffalo Carp.  YOU may think that this is an ugly fish - but, this fish was BEAUTIFUL to Rick!   

If you have ever caught a carp - you know that they are notorious for slipping off the line at the last second.  After he gave this one a good-bye kiss he set her free.  This time of year they are looking to lay eggs and this one was no exception - she was very fat.

The only one not too impressed with the Carp catch was Sassy. 

She was concerned that her Catfish Sniffer was off a little.  I reminded her that in February she lead us to 228 catfish keepers at over 441 pounds! 

After that it was lights out... we caught 26 Keepers - in a new spot!

Cats are deep near the Ridgewood marina - we are fishing with cut shad, at about 18 feet!

Better to Lose the Anchor than the Whole Boat!

WINDY! 

Rick, Sas and I were out on Lake Waco and out of no where the wind kicked up! We had white cap waves hitting the side of our boat that made Sassy a little nervous!

We anchored down the boat the best we could and rode out the waves for about 30 minutes!
The wind died down and the FISH STARTED BITING... we started adding to the record number of keepers for the month of February...

This is a 20 pounder that Rick caught on some of his Super Secret Stink bait at 16 feet.

This is a smaller Blue Cat - 16 pounder.   The water temp is about 53 degrees. 

YEP - we let them go!  We had a group of fishermen come up beside our boat to take a look at the big fish... As they got close to us they noticed that Rick was crying - they asked if everything was OK?  I had to explain to them that our rule is if the Cats are over 15 pounds - we release them - I told them it makes my fishing buddy very sad!!!

It is really amazing how fast the weather changed (kinda like life)- we were worried about flooding out the USS Sassy and WITHIN ONE HOUR - the wind was gone, Sassy guided us to a bunch of Catfish (including two pretty good size ones) and a group of fishermen had a chance to see a grown man cry!

BEST TIME TO FISH....

If fishing is like religion, then CatFishing is high church.

Besides the Rain - it was COLD Sunday morning!
We hooked into 18 keepers - for a total of 39lbs. The ONLY thing these guys would bite on was Ricks SUPER SECRET STINK BAIT... which I will share with you - IF you dare to make it!... Includes a lot of very stinky ingredients: shrimp, liver, worms, vanilla, red dye, corn flakes, corn, cheese spread and dog food ... plastic glove REQUIRED - VERY STINKY!

This is a 6.11 lb Cat that Sas lead us to.

Not sure if you can tell from the pictures or not - but, Lake Waco is DIRTY!  Besides being muddy, it was full of trees limbs and various other items... I am guessing that the ONLY reason the Cats were biting is because they sniffed out the bait.  We chummed for about 30 minutes before they started dining.  Water temp was about 50 degrees - but the wind temp was much cooler!

Rick, Sas and I found out Sunday morning that the BEST time to fish is when it's rainin' and when it ain't!

SNOW IN WACO = Dedication, GREAT FISHING and Pondering!!!!

SUNDAY WAS SO COLD...

IT ACTUALLY SNOWED IN WACO!!!!

On Saturday night I gave Rick the call that he did NOT want to get... I asked if he would be ready to wet a line at about 6:30 Sunday morning - his response is NOT PRINTABLE.  However, ...

 We caught a TON of fish Sunday morning.  We kept 17 Channels and Blues for a total of 34 pounds. We caught them in deep water 18-20 feet deep near the twin bridges on Lake Waco.  Dough bait and cut shad were on the menu for the Catfish and they bought it hook, line and sinkers!

It is not everyday you find someone as CRAZY as you are - to hang out in 34 degree conditions... I started thinking - if it's zero degrees in Waco today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be? We are still thinking on that one...

PLEASE NOTE: Sassy avoided us this morning and slept in!!! – SMART GIRL!!

With the exception of these thousand or so Lake Gulls - we did have the Lake to ourselves!

Shortly after we pulled into the dock - the snow started falling!

On the way home we discussed what REALLY happens when snow falls in Waco - it was CRAZY - people were driving 40 MPH on the hwy - it was just starting to snow... any amount of snow in Waco 'winterrupts' our traffic. Rick said, "One good thing is that your yard will look as good as Wesley's (he's my next door neighbor)!!