We went back to Dam b the other night, Ashlyn,myself,Brett and Gabe. We started to early and had run the trolling motor down by the time the fishing got good. I only have a 40lb thrust on a 20ft boat and it doesnt take long to run the 12volt battery down. I plan to replace this very soon with a 65-80lb thrust and 24 volt system. Should go really fast in high gear and save the battery while moving plenty good enough at the slower speeds.

We did manage to shoot a few fish and seen lots of alligators up close. We will be puttting in for gator tags next month and will hopefully get drawn again. This lake is loaded with gators. Backt o the fish, we shot as drum that went close to 35lbs with some smaller carp in the 15-20lb range. Gabe stuck on huge one that bent the barbs around backwards on the fish head and let him escape.

While slowly motoring in we saw tons of fish and now know to wait a little later in the night,( I knew this but couldnt resist) if the motor would have just held out.

We will be holding another bowfishing tournament out of our shop on Aug 4, it will be from 6pm to 12 midnight. 3 man teams with $75 entry with a cash payback for  most fish and biggest gar and carp or drum.

 The trinity should be good right now, but my trolling motor will not hold me with them letting out 70,000 cubic feet of water out of the livingston dam. Hopefully the rain will stop and we can get back there and get back to work before we starve from lost time due to all the rain we have been getting. You can go up river from the lake but be very carefull with all the floaters and high water coming down from Dalla.

I need to go to rayburn as it should be really good right now and fairly clear. Toledo should be about the same, though this is the highest the lake level has been in years. There is lots of grass and habitat on the bend just waiting to be explored with bow in hand. There should be a monster or two hanging out somewhere along that grass and the river.

Well I dodged the rain and made dam be finally sunday. I headed out about 2pm and while driving over there noticed the right rear tire  on the boat trailer was vibrating. I pulled over and got out to check it out and sure enough it was throughing the tread off and had the wire showing. So I decided to go to Jasper which was only 8 miles away and see if I could get a tire at walmart. Well I got to walmart and they didnt have a trailer tire in that size, but did have a regular passenger tire. Only problem is they wouldnt put it on the trailer rim. Every where else in town was closed being sunday, so back to woodville I went. I barely made it to the woodville walmart parking lot when the tire let go. I went in and they also didnt have a trailer tire but (would) mount it on the trailer rim(whats up with that) but wouldnt take it off. So off I went to get a 4way out of automotive and went out side and took the tire off and they replaced it. Will have to get a spare as soon as possible so I dont have this problem again.

 Well then it was back on the road and heading back over to the river. I got there put the boat in and away I went in the high current. The lake is about 2′ above normal at the moment with all the rain we have been having.  I stopped at the first cut I came to and went in. There is grass everywhere since they left the lake dry for a year to kill aquatic vegatation and do some hurricane rita cleanup. Well woulnt you know I left my polarized glasses at home and couldnt hardly see and wouldnt you know a 50lb range carp came right out from under me as I got my bow ready and that was all of that. I did manage to shoot a lot of small car and drum around through there by putting the sun at my back. I came up  on a gar laying on top off the grass and could tell he was fairly long but didnt really look that big. So I eased up on him and let the arrow fly, hitting him right behind the gills. I pulled him up and it turned out to be a 5ft gator gar weighing in around 75lbs or so. I knew he was long but didnt think he was that long.

I hit several other cuts and shot some more smaller gar and drum, but never made it down to the 190 bridge where the huge grass flats are. I have been hearing reports of tons of gar,carp and buffalo from that area, and will go back one night this week to see how it is on it at night. Will keep you updated.

The lake is finally full again and a about a foot over normal level. With the level being down for over a year there is all kinds of vegatation now and I am getting good reports. The carp and buffalo are all up in the shallow grass with fish to 35lbs being taken . Lots of big gar have also been seen in the river, where last year there was not that many sightings.

I plan on going sometime this week and will give a report on how we do. We were going to go out today but it has been raining all day, so I went ahead and opened the shop. Glad I did as I had pretty good business and got some layaways paid off. Weather permitting I will be out there friday and Sunday both during the day and at night and will let yall know how it goes.