Pens Fan Superstition Wins Cup...

Sidney Crosby bucked past superstition and happily embraced the Prince of Wales trophy this year. Quite different from last years almost black cat in my path scared avoidance of it last year. Superstition runs high amongst all sports players, especially hockey players. For a good rundown of them in hockey, go to http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/9620326/Hockey's-best-playoff-superstitions.

But, as us sports fans know, superstition extends through that cathode ray tube, those light emitting diodes, or that kaleidascopic of plasma or digits and pixels that make these new-fangled TV's display our sports dreams. The players on the other side feel our almost warlock spell casting aura, that ESP, that voice in our head. To cast our goodness, or for that matter our misfortune against our opponent, we have to wear a certain hat, jersey, sit in a particular chair, eat a particular meal, etc., etc., etc. to ensure our team wins, or, fail to carry out your rituals and cast a spell of doom over them.

Well, I must say, it's my fault for the Penguins immolation, as the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's David Molinari put it, in Game 5. In the Pens wins in Games 3 and 4, I chose to sip on The Balvenie Scotch. But, I had run out for Game 5. Oh, believe me when I say how I pondered the decision to just stick to a nice stout beer for Game 5 or to go with a Scotch, albeit a Bowmore Islay malt. I chose the Bowmore, a bad choice; and you all saw the result, a 5 - 0 loss.

How did I reverse that atrocious spell and bring the Pens to victory? Well, this took great thought as I had a problem, no Balvenie in the house, and the 10 yr old is nowhere to be found, it's been discontinued. Onto a backup plan, the old faithful standard, a good stout beer, my other choice back in game 5. Nothing like going to a gameplan that has carried me and my team to victory more often than not. My record with a good stout is an impeccable .867 (hell, I don't really know what it, that just sounds good and almost honest). No changeups in game 6 or game 7, oh how I'm so glad my superstition carried the Pens through to victory. Toasting Maxime Talbot's goals, Hal Gil's and Matt Cooke's hits, Rob Scuderi's pokes at the puck, Malkin's magical skate assist, Crosby's skating prowess, Fleury's saves, and on, and on, and on. From now on, I'll just have to keep it simple and not imbide my superstition on a discontinued scotch - We can all ill afford to jeopardize next season so soon.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise, ...

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. I believe Ben Franklin is credited with that quote. Leading into my planned outing, the only thing I did was rise up early only to be let down by more wind and just a little too much easterly component to hit the surf in the LA pocket. Was through the boat cut of the East jetty at 5:45 a.m. only to find choppy, muddy water. So, abandoned that plan right away.

Decided to go to the outside of the West/Texas jetty hoping to find better water there on the outgoing tide. It was marginally better. Trolled from the boat cut to the end of the jetty throwing traps, plastics, and slow sinkers. My only highlight, lost a redfish on an Assassin Blurp.

Headed back up the channel hoping for better water and wind conditions, to no avail. Decided to pull out, eat breakfast and settle in on a new plan.

Well, the new plan was to head into the north end of Sabine. The wind had not relented and was still out of the NNE. So, the open water of the north end was a bit rough. The water clarity was much better though. And, I found a dirty water/tide line. Worked it with a variety of lures, nada.

With the chop in the lake, I opted not to run too much in search of fish or birds, so headed up to Bird Island bayou. Tried a cut there for awhile. Nothing, decided to call it a day at about 2:00 p.m.

Maybe next time, I ought to go to bed earlier, get up later, and catch a lot more fish. After this trip, I needed a good nap.

Good Weather, Good Water, But...

Wow, fishing conditions last week were really great. Usually, the pattern is great weather during the work week, crappy weather on the weekends. Well, this was one of those exceptions. Decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather starting Friday afternoon.

Brought along a fishing partner and headed to Sabine Pass and Lighthouse Cove. As expected, lots of boats at Lighthouse Cove, word was out that this has been a Hot Spot of late. We still managed to find ourselves a spot and not get in the way of anyone else.

The fishing was, well, Ok. Lots of little trout and flounder. We were fishing Gulps. Fishing the plastics was yielding short strikes on virtually every cast. Suspect those were all small fish. Live bait being used by some around us probably brought more fish into the boat, but I would venture to guess 1 in 5 may have been keepers. But that is better than the 1 in 50 we put in the boat. But the one we put in the boat, and, no I didn't catch it, was 24 7/8" trout. I'd venture to guess that's pushing 5 lbs or more. Not a bad one to put in the boat.

Beyond the one trout, we did manage two keeper flounder out of probably 10 or so undersized. Between two stints at the cove, we tried the Texas Jetty. Water looked good, but of all things, the wind had shifted to out of the south. It wasn't supposed to do that. I fought the wind and the trolling motor for maybe an hour before we had headed back to Lighthouse Cove.

Seeing the water conditions and with the wind and weather holding through Saturday, and, no, didn't make it out Saturday, some home chores to take care of, I headed out to some uncharted, unexplored waters on Sunday morning. I knew with the wind and weather holding along with great fishing reports, the boat traffic would be bad. Let's just say, the jetty wall looked more like pit row at a NASCAR race. Anyway, I made it an very early morning, got to the Launch at 5:00 a.m. and headed for the surf area in the Louisiana Pocket. I had never ventured into this area before, but figured the water ought to be right.

Motored up into the pocket area slowly and monitored the water depth. I'm alway nervous about running in unfamiliar territory. And, with Hurricanes Rita, Humberto, and Ike over the past several years, you just don't know what's beneath the surface.

Amazingly, I was able to run up to probably 100 yards of the beach. And, this was on a low tide. I was very pleased to see green water and lots of bait. Spotted some nervous bait and starting chunking a topwater, a top dog jr. No takers. Tried some plastics. On one of my casts, had one of those strikes that quickly yielded an lureless line, I suspected a spanish mackerel.

Went back to a topwater, had one blowup and then finally stuck a good 23" trout. Getting that first fish is always a great feeling. And, with the conditions as they were, I thought, man I'm in the fish now. Well, after another hour or so of chunking lures, that was all she wrote.

Made a run to the LA jetty. As I already said, lots of boats. Trolled some open areas along the outside of the jetty. I'll say this, the water was absolutely gorgeous, along the jetty wall, you could see bottom. Although I couldn't rustle up a strike, I was able to see sheepshead come out of hiding from the rocks and either turn a nose up at my offering or strike at some glass minnows.

I had another interesting observation while chunking a rattletrap, a, what I believe to be a triple tail, made a pass at it. After talking with a couple of other folks who had also fished over the weekend, I suspect it was. Apparently, lots of triple tail were in.

That observation along with bluefish at the end of the jetty busting bait along the dirty water line was neat to see. With the tide all but slack at 10:00 a.m. I decided I wasn't going to wait on the tide to turn and the bite to turn on. From what I heard, I would not have had to wait much longer as the bite turned on at about 11:00 and was good till about 2:00 p.m. Hey, no regrets, I accomplished what I wanted, I explored some new and very promising water. So, when the weather, the water, and the bite all get right, I'll be there --- Some Day!