Anticipation

Anticipating - to regard as probable; expect or predict.  Anticipation - the action of anticipating something; expectation or prediction.  Some of you are old enough to remember the old Heinz ketchup commercial where they showed the bottle tilted and the ketchup ever so slowly coming out to be added to a bun.  The implication was it was so good it was worth the wait.  There are many things in life we anticipate with excitement and trepidation.  Graduating high school, a first car, a first date or our first born.  Events I don't think any of us will ever forget nor should we.  As I get older, I have found that feeling of anticipation hasn't left me.  Sure, I look and act calm, but on the inside I'm bursting with excitement.

There are so many things that still excite me and can even keep me up at night. No, you silly ice weirdos, not ice fishing.  But for this iteration of a blog it's an upcoming trip to Texas.  My annual (usually multiple) trip to what is known as Ms. Henley's pond.  While anytime a trip slated for there is exciting, for some reason this one is magnified tenfold.  Why?  Why is this trip different?  Truth be told I have no idea, it just is. Just fishing this pond for an hour will last a lifetime in your heart.  Even if the fishing wasn't spectacular, Mr and Mrs Henley, who own the pond are.  Two finer people you'll never meet, their kindness is genuine and runs deep plus they have a long history with their community, home and pond.  They wear this kindness like a giant badge of honor and I'm proud to call them friends.

On this trip, we'll meet with Lloyd Tackitt, fellow FxR member and blogger which means Dave Coulsen will no longer have sole bragging rights to say he fished with him.  In my email exchanges with Lloyd, he epitomizes the folks of that area. While he'll want to argue, he likes people and likes to help people. That alone is good enough for me to meet Lloyd.  But he's also an avid angler, blogger and published writer and let's face it, he spins a great yarn.  Some are quite questionable as many stories Texans tend to herald but they're all a pleasure to read. lol  

My good friend Kev-O will be going along and being with him is always a pleasure.  He's a sasquatch of goofiness and always has a ready laugh for his friends and foes alike.  He, along with farginicehole will literally give you just about anything, they could be dead broke but would still give it to you anyway because that's how much they enjoy helping folks and seeing them happy.  Kev is great company on a trip and has many fun adventures to share for the drive.  Last year when we did this, I had more fun watching Kev get introduced to the people, food and fishing of the Hillsboro area than I did catching bass.. errr sorry Rangler.. ditch pickles.  He was like a jubilant child turned loose in a toy store, he quite literally giggled the entire trip, even in his sleep. Oh, and he discovered that in that neck of the woods, I'm one of the smaller people.  lol

The fishing?  Fishing this pond is not something that happens, it's something that's experienced. It's not fishing but an explosion of action and emotion only to be heightened exponentially by the fact that your imagination isn't as good as the real thing.  It took me a few years to dial down how to catch the larger fish.  Catching a 100 bass in a day is easy as long as you're satisfied with the  one pounders.  On our first day at the pond last year, we arrived and set up our toons to prepare to fish the next morning.  You would think after a 12 hour drive and then preparing the toons we would be ready for a shower and a good night’s sleep but there was still an hour and a half of daylight. Kev looks at me and says, "We're not wasting this daylight".  Not sure how many he caught but I landed between 25 and 30 in that short time.  In the next few days we caught hundreds upon hundreds of 2 to 5 lb bass and even a couple bigger.  There's a 10 plus pounder waiting for me.  

Are these the reasons why this year seems to have me anticipating the trip more than usual?  Even upon reflection, I simply don't know.  What I do know is, I'll be going in May and it can't get here fast enough.  I'm going to enjoy the next few months of dreaming about what might be.  Will Lloyd be able to use his whippy stick and pull a 5 lb or larger bass out of hydrilla? Lloyd said he'd show me his river and fishing a magical new water will make me feel how?  Will Kev or I catch a larger than 10 pounder?  How large a smile will I have as Mr and Mrs Henley share stories of their life with us.  Yeah..... anticipation

video from April 2017

short chatterbait video