Fishing Madness In My Old Home Zone

A couple days ago Linda Lou told me about a scene such as you are seeing above which has been happening on the Skagit River in Mount Vernon, with a throng of people casting lines into the river, hoping to hook a salmon.

Linda Lou told me she would send me photos of the Skagit fishing scene, but those have not yet arrived.

The above photos of fishing madness is taking place in the Samish River. Seen via Facebook's "You Know You're From Anacortes When" page.

The Samish is a much smaller river than the Skagit. If I remember right the Samish empties into Bellingham Bay. But, before doing so, passes through the booming Skagit Valley tourist town of Edison.

Edison is half of the name of the high school from which I long ago matriculated.

Burlington-Edison High School.

My Favorite Nephew Joey inherited the Jones family fishing gene. I think Joey is who ended up with Grandpa Jones' bamboo fishing pole. I may be wrong regarding that recollection. But I do know Joey likes fishing, and is a master at the art of smoking salmon. 

I have experienced Joey's mastery of smoking salmon in person, due to Joey packing some dry ice and mailing me some Joey smoked salmon. Best smoked salmon ever...
 

With The Temperature Nearing 100 I Took A Cooling Walk Around Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake's Fishermen

I have been overdoing the exercise thing a bit of late, maybe, so today I decided to take an easy walk around Fosdick Lake in Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park

When I arrived at Oakland Lake Park and exited my motorized means of transport my phone based temperature monitoring app indicated the temperature was only 95, yet somehow the fisherman you see here felt the need to cool off by sitting in the lake.

The breeze blowing off the lake is actually quite cooling, along with the built-in Fosdick Fountain cooling mister, both of which amount to creating a wind chill type effect which has the real feel of the temperature seeming to feel way below 95.

None of my temperature monitoring devices indicated anything special happened yesterday. But, this morning I read that yesterday the National Weather Service had measured our first 100 degree day of the year.

Apparently a cold front is heading our way, dropping the temperature into the chilly 80s by tomorrow.

I will believe that when I start to shiver.

In the video below you get a more active look at the Fosdick fishermen, along with a look at the Fosdick Fountain...

I Refuse To Eat The Fish I Catch In Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake

Upon arrival at the Oakland Lake Park parking lot I saw the guy on the left catch and release a fish back in to Fosdick Lake.

I was standing on Fosdick Dam, looking south across Fosdick  Lake, when I zoomed in to take a picture of the bucolic fishing scene you see here.

A crowd of spectators, in the form of humans and ducks, were spectating the fishing.

I've never enjoyed fishing. Even though the fishing gene runs strong in my relatives, like Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey.

Joey catches fish he can eat, caught in water that is not polluted.

One is advised not to eat the fish one catches in Fosdick Lake.

I would think that a town that felt compelled to post such warnings about fish caught in the town's water would be motivated to clean up the town's dirty water to make the fish safe to eat.

The town of Bedford has a stocked fishing lake in Chisholm Park that is quite popular.

Bedford is only a few miles from Fort Worth.

Maybe Fort Worth could send a study group to Bedford to find out how it is that Bedford has a lake from which one can consume the fish one catches.

Rained On While Fishing In Fosdick Lake With The Twins Theo & Ruby

Fosdick Fishermen

A time complication caused by Brussels Sprouts had me exiting my abode later than the norm for my daily mid-day endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

So, due to running late, I aborted my plan to check in on the growing buffet that has been sprouting on the Tandy Hills and opted instead to walk around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

I experienced a sort of strange weather phenomenon whilst walking around Fosdick Lake today.

In the sky there were a few wispy clouds. A good steady wind was blowing. For a few minutes, from no apparent source, rain rained down. Not many drops dripped, but there was sufficient drippage to make no mistake about the fact that the almost cloudless sky was raining.

In the picture above you are looking at a pair of Fosdick Fishermen fishing next to one of the signs warning fish catchers that it may not be safe to eat the fish you catch from this polluted Fort Worth lake.

It always strikes as such a pitiful, sad thing that such a sign is needed, with that need not seeming to provoke any sort of civic initiative to clean up Fort Worth's lakes. Maybe cleaning up Fort Worth's lake could be added to the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Changing the subject  from dirty water and boondoggles to something else.

The twins, my nephew, Theo John, and niece, Ruby Jean, turned 23 months old yesterday. That is Theo and Ruby below, sitting in their favorite chair in their living room in Tacoma.

I heard from Theo and Ruby's mama on Friday, inquiring whether I would be seeing the twins, and their big brother, David, later this month, or early in December, in Arizona, where they are going to see their grandma and grandpa and favorite aunt. Among many others.

My mom and dad have been thinking that they would be seeing all their kids in one location for the first time since August 11, 2001, sometime in late November or early December.

However, one of Theo and Ruby's aunts is not cooperating with this plan. The old TV game show, Family Feud, comes to mind.

I am sort of looking forward to meeting David, Theo and Ruby for the first time. I am fairly certain my uncle powers are still strong, but it would be nice to have that confirmed.

Sniffling My Way Around Fosdick Lake To Quack With The Fosducks

I do not recollect if I've previously blogged a photo of the paved trail that winds its way around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

In the photo, you might guess, because I've already mentioned it, that is the paved trail around Fosdick Lake you are looking at.

You can sort of tell that the trail is going up a hill at this location. Heading north up a hill on the east side of Fosdick Lake.

On the long, almost 4 mile, drive to Oakland Lake Park my allergies started acting up quite miserably. By the time I arrived and parked I was thinking that the walking outdoors idea might be a bad one.

However, very quickly after I started walking the allergy woes abated.

I walked the paved trail all the way around Fosdick Lake and then sat on a conveniently located park bench, for a spell, to quack with the Fosdick Lake Fosducks, who were in happy quacking form today.

In my foggy groggy state I did not realize, til a minute ago, that Elsie Hotpepper has gone missing again. I lack the energy to hunt her down at my currently level of extreme decrepitude.

I got gas yesterday and did not call my mom. I am feeling a little guilty about this. My mom is allergic to people with allergies, so I was afraid she'd have an allergic reaction to my sniffling and nasal voice.

Green Fosdick Lake

Fosdick Lake was looking very green today, as in the color of the water was green, not just the color reflected off the water.

I think that the green Fosdick Lake water must be very nutritious, because I saw 3 very big fish jump out of the green water today, making 3 big splashes.

Where do the fish in Fosdick Lake come from, I found myself wondering today? It is not a natural lake. It is the result of a dam damming up a little trickle of a creek. Did the city stock Fosdick Lake at some point in time, with the fish remaining the mutant survivors of that original stocking?

It would be a really nice thing if the city of Fort Worth cleaned up the water in Fosdick Lake and stocked it with a variety of edible fish, like the city of Hurst does with the lake that is in Chisholm Park, with its trout, catfish, bass and other slippery water dwellers.

What would be so difficult about draining Fosdick Lake, cleaning up the lake bed, then making sure the water that refills the lake is clean, then stocking the lake with edible fish? If Fort Worth would do this it would likely make the city the Envy of the Nation, maybe even make the entire world Green with Envy.

A Pleasant October Sunday Fishing From Fort Worth's Fosdic Lake Beaches

Sunday Fishing In Fort Worth's Fosdic Lake

With a gentle breeze blowing and the air conditioned to a pleasant degree somewhere in the 70s, this second Sunday of October was a very pleasant day to walk around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park.

The Great North Texas Drought continues to shrink Fosdic Lake. Beaches have appeared as the lake has shrunk.

There were several people casting lines into the water to catch fish one is warned by multiple signs not to consume.

I imagine with Fosdic Lake growing ever smaller that whatever is bad in the water is getting ever more concentrated, with the fish ever more contaminated.

I took an interesting phone call whilst I walked around Fosdic Lake. It was sports related. My favorite subject. More on that in a subsequent blogging.

Speaking of sports, swimming this morning was slightly cold for the first time in months. The air was in the 50s, with the water not much warmer than the air.

The Galtex's recently returned from a month down south, in Buenos Aires. When they left their pool was almost HOT, upon their return Mrs. Galtex claims their pool is now too cool to swim in.

Mrs. Galtex, if you are reading this, all you need to do is spend about a half minute in the cold water and it won't feel cold anymore. Just jump right in. Of course, it helps to have a thick layer of insulative adipose tissue, like I do.

Enjoying A Naturally Cool Saturday In North Texas While Fishing, Walking & Town Talking

Swimming in the rain this morning was a wonderful thing. The air was heated to a temperature somewhere in the mid 70s. The water in the pool was quite a bit warmer than the mid 70s.

I have no idea what the temperature was of the raindrops that kept falling on my head.

The rain dropped for several hours. At the current point in time, a bit past 3 on this Saturday, it is only 84.2.

I went to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake and visit the Fosducks again today. The Fosducks, recently traumatized by the HEAT, today were ducking in the lake, out in full force, paddling all over Fosdic Lake,

The cool temperatures brought out a long of anglers, angling for fish one is warned not to consume. The fishermen seem to have themselves a real fine time.

Yesterday when I walked around Fosdic Lake, talking to my mom, my mom asked me if I could find out if a high school classmate of mom's was still among the living. A few minutes ago I Googled the classmate's name and then called mom to tell her where the classmate can be found.

This had me thinking back to 1962 and the World of Tomorrow in the Seattle World's Fair Century 21 predictions of the future. The video phones predicted in 1962 were huge clunky things. Certainly not mobile. 1962 saw nothing like the Internet in the future.

So, in 2011 I am walking around a lake in Texas, not tethered to a land line, talking to my mom in Arizona, in a long distance call that adds not a penny to my phone bill, with my mom asking if I can find out if a friend of hers from long ago is still alive. Then via this invention called the Interet I use this thing called Google to quickly find the answer to my mom's question.

If the World of Tomorrow told people at the Seattle World's Fair that a searching thing called Google would be a really big deal in the 21st Century, people would have giggled.

After Fosdic Lake was done with me I did my regular Saturday thing and went to Town Talk. I thought Oakland Lake Park was a lot busier than usual, attributing the activity to the sudden cool weather. I have never seen Town Talk so busy as it was today. I had trouble finding a parking spot.

I imagine most of North Texas is likely out and about enjoying the natural air-conditioning.

It won't last. Tomorrow we are scheduled to be back over 100.

In Village Creek Natural Historic Area Looking For Snakes, Fish & Graffiti

You are looking at some fishermen and fisherwomen and fisherkids fishing on and near one of the Village Creek Natural Historic Area's dam bridges, today, around noon.

I'd not seen a large group of people fishing here before. There were 3 or 4 more fishing to the right.

You can't see it in the picture, but the guy in the middle had a big net that he stuck in the creek which caught little minnow-like fish, which he then distributed to the other fisher people, who used the little fish as bait to try and catch bigger fish.

I saw no big fish caught.

I had barely started my walk through the jungle when I was annoyed to see graffiti.

A couple weeks ago I was annoyed to see graffiti on the new wooden bridge in Veterans Park. You can't see it in the picture but there is a big mess of graffiti on the dam bridge near where they guy with the minnow net is standing.

The graffiti in the picture is not quite so bad. It's more artistic. The artistic graffiti is on some sort of sewer outlet. The graffiti artists did not even have the decency to take their empty cans of spray paint with them.

The annoying graffiti, besides spray painting on the dam bridge, was spraying graffiti on various park signs. That goes past being graffiti to being outright vandalism.

I have seen more snakes in the Village Creek Natural Historic Area Park than any other park I've been in in Texas. Copperheads, Water Moccasins, Rattlesnakes. It is also the only place I've seen an Alligator Gar.

Today I walked off the paved trail to take the picture of the graffiti on the sewer outlet and saw a "road" path that I'd not previously seen. I thought maybe the recent Barnett Shale seismic testing in the park had had a truck make this new road.

Walking on this "road" through the jungle made me a bit nervous, due to that snake issue I mentioned two paragraphs ago.

Eventually the "road" came to a dead end at the creek. This is not Village Creek. I think the name is Bush Creek. But I'm not sure. What I do know for sure was there was a big white pipe crossing above the creek, supported by cables, like a suspension bridge. It looked very strange.

I am happy to report I saw no snakes.

Walkng Late After A No Power Lunch Catching Fosdic Lake Fish Thinking About Safe & Sane River Inner Tubing

There has been no swimming, for me, for two mornings in a row, due to the pool needing to be drained so the underwater lights could be replaced.

Today, at noon, I drove up to North Richland Hills for my weekly Wednesday restaurant rendezvous. As I exited the freeway I got a call telling me the restaurant was closed, due to power being out in the area, due to last night's storm.

North Richland Hills was hit a bit harder, by the storm, than it hit my location.

With the restaurant rendezvous aborted, I continued on to the ALDI Market in Hurst, not knowing if it was powered up or not.

It was.

By the time I had lunch I managed to overeat. I do not like overeating.

Coming up on 5, I decided I needed to get some pedestrian exercise. So, I drove to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdic Lake.

I thought Fosdic Falls might be falling hard due to last night's rain. I was surprised to see Fosdic Falls barely dribbling.

I was also surprised to see so many people angling for fish in Fosdic Lake, where signs warn you to be careful about eating what you catch.

In addition to all the solo fishermen, there were two cute family groups.

The group you see at the top was a grandma, a mom and two kids. I know this because I stopped to talk to them after I took the picture. They'd caught a fish. A very little perch. First fish I've seen caught from Fosdic Lake. I should have asked if I could take a picture of it. But I did not think of that til later.

Grandma told me they don't eat the fish, their cat does.

The other fishing family was a dad with two kids, a girl and a boy. The girl was in a pink ballet tutu.

This group reminded me of my dad. Not due to the pink tutu, but due to the fact that when I was a little kid we'd go on family fishing excursions on the Skagit River. Sometimes it'd just be dad and me and my brother.

The fish one sought from the Skagit was not perch. It was salmon.

My brother strongly caught the fishing gene from my dad. Me, not so much. My brother passed the fishing gene onto my nephew, Joey, who continues to catch a lot of salmon in the Skagit River, without his dad, who has moved to Arizona. Where no salmon spawn in any river. As far as I know.

I never much enjoyed standing on a river or lake bank tossing a fish line in the water. But, I did very much enjoy fishing from a fishing boat out in the San Juan Islands zone. My mom and dad had a nice big boat, sort of a floating camper. Trolling for salmon is fun. Catching cod is fun. Sometimes when trolling for salmon you'd catch a shark instead. Dogsharks. Not as fun as salmon.

My dad caught a halibut over 180 pounds, once, out in the San Juans. I was not along. The local newspaper printed a picture of my dad and the big halibut. I must see if I can locate that picture and one of my dad's dad, my grandpa, with a giant sturgeon he caught in the Nooksack River.

Strange, it never bothered me to float in the Skagit or Nooksack Rivers, particularly the Nooksack. It's a big inner tubing river in summer.

Never crossed my mind to worry about a salmon or sturgeon encounter. No one organizes the massive weekend Nooksack inner tube float parties in summer. It just sort of organically happens.

Not the result of someone's brilliant brainstorm, like the one we learned about yesterday with the announcement of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's summer Rockin' the River with Inner Tube Happy Hours.

Yellow Pseudo Roses of Texas and Safe Fishing at Oakland Lake Park

My sad case of SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) caused by last week's non-stop gray, cold, wet weather has totally gone away, cured by several days of blue sky and today's return to borderline, open the windows or turn on the A/C, HOT.

Sadly, but not the SAD type of sad, we've not had enough of the HOT stuff for my pool water to turn pleasant. In other words I was in it for a very short time this morning before I sought refuge and warmth in the hot tub.

I went walking at Oakland Lake Park today to enjoy the pre-Spring, Spring-like weather. I came across a beautiful field of yellow Texas wildflowers. Previously, kind observers of my confusions have informed me, (after seeing and photographing this same wildflower at the Tandy Hills and previously blogging about that wildflower sighting), that this particular Texas Wildflower is called a Dandelion.

Apparently the Dandelion is not exclusively a Texas Wildflower.

In modern French the Dandelion is named pissenlit, which means "urinate in bed", apparently referring to its diuretic properties. Likewise, "pissabeds" is an English folk-name for this plant, as is piscialletto in Italian and the Spanish meacamas. In various north-eastern Italian dialects the flower is known as pisacan ("dog pisses"), referring to how common they are found at the side of pavements, while in many other northern Italian dialects it is known as soffione ("blowing") referring to the blowing the seeds from the stalk. The same is true for German, where Pusteblume ("blowing flower") is a popular designation. Likewise, in Polish it is called "dmuchawiec", deriving from dmuchać ("to blow"). Whilst in its flowering form the Poles know it as Mlecz, a word derived from "milk", due to the plant's milky sap.

The other thing I saw interesting at Oakland Lake Park today was an older gentleman fly fishing. I don't know if he was having any luck, but he was doing a lot of casting.

The Texas Department of State Health Services warning sign about fish caught in the lake has been changed to sound less dire. Previously it said, "WARNING: The Possession of Fish from this Lake is Prohibited Due to Contamination. Punishable by up to $2,000. Fine."

Now the fine warning has been dropped, as well as the prohibition of fish, with the warning signs now saying, "A Fish Consumption Advisory Exists for the Water Body or Adjacent Areas."

The no swimming or boating signs were no longer there too, I just realized. Not that I would want to go swimming in Oakland Lake. Too many turtles. The turtles and all the ducks and geese, seeming to live without dying on the lake, has long seemed a bit odd, what with that previous warning about the dire nature of the fish in the lake.