Dudleys Diary

and she is going to escape this oppressive Texas heat wave we have been experiencing the last week or so. She is on her way to Seattle WA with our old next door neighbors who moved up there about five months ago. Lizzie has been babysitting their daughter Kate since she was a toddler. She turned six a few days ago and they came back to Texas over the weekend to celebrate her birthday. The photos above show Lizzie and Kate taking a dip in the pool Saturday. Sunday morning they came by the house and picked Lizzie up and they went to spend the day at Hurricane Harbor. They spent the night last night at a hotel out at the airport and got up early this morning to head up to Seattle. Lizzie is going to stay up there for a whole month and will no doubt have a great time. She took her passport and they are going to take a trip up to Canada and she will get to see all of the great attractions in and around the Seattle area. They live in a four bedroom water front home on a big lake outside town. The view across the lake is spectacular with a volcano looming in the distance. Lizzie took her camera and hopefully will take a lot of great photos that I can post on Dudley's Diary. Lizzie is going to be working while she is up there at the day camp that Kate is attending this summer so she will be able to earn a little money while she is there. Lizzie is lucky to get out of Texas during the heat and is going to get to see a part of the world that Dudley has never been to.

last night. He said they had a great time and he estimated he caught in excess of 200 speckled sea trout in a twenty hour period! They all had a great time and he said the fishing at night was nothing short of spectacular. They fished at night off of the dock under high powered lights powered by a generator. The photo at the top above is Frank holding his biggest trout of the trip, a twenty incher. It is a nice trout but what makes the catch even better is that he caught this fish on Dudley's old 7 weight fly rod and reel. Frank said the big trout made a couple of big runs and was really pulling the drag on the old fly reel. If you are a fly fisherman or woman you know there is not a more beautiful sound in the world than a good fish pulling out line on a fly reel and listening to the drag singing. Frank guessed he caught at least fifty fish on the fly rod and reel. The rest he caught on his spinning outfit. On the fly fishing outfit, he tied a small saltwater popper on the on the end of his leader and he tied an 18" drop line to the hook and on the other end tied on a small shrimp fly. Frank said as soon as the lures would hit the water, a trout would swirl up and grab the fly. Frank said he had the best luck on the spinning outfit using white bass assassins on a saltwater jig head. They only stayed down at the remote fishing cabin at the Land cut for a total of about 20 hours. Frank said he did not sleep at all during that time. His comment was that no normal red blooded American man worth his salt could sleep with the fish biting like they were. Dudley can not argue with his logic for sure. Before Frank left for the coast last weekend, Dudley allowed that this fishing adventure could be one for the ages. Dudley was glad to see Frank and the legendary Land cut did not disappoint.

yesterday evening after he got off work. Frank had to get some fishing tackle for his upcoming trip to the Texas Coast. He bought a Mirrolure suspending and topwater lure. He also bought a pint of artificial shrimp in the New Penny color. He bought a package of 1/4 oz saltwater jig heads to use with the shrimp. He also picked up some DOA shrimp and spec rigs in glow color for fishing at night under the lights. Frank's buddy said that they have seines down at the cabin that they can use to try and catch live shrimp if the artificials don't produce. Dudley hopes they catch and bring home a bunch of speckled trout fillets. It would be nice to have some fresh fish to eat. Dudley would like to see Frank catch his first Redfish. Maybe he will get lucky and catch one. He is going to go to Academy tomorrow night and buy an inexpensive spinning rod and reel combo to take down to the coast. He is also going to take Dudley's old 7 wt fiberglass Daiwa fly rod and reel and do a little fly fishing. Dudley promised Frank he would put a new leader on this fly fishing line today so he will be ready to go on Friday. Tonight Frank and three of his friends are going to the Rangers/Astros game. The Rangers won last night and I think they clinched the Silver Boot again with the victory. Go Rangers!