A Bitter-Sweet Reunion In Texas

I received the sad news that a close friend had passed away this past week. To be honest, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with Tanya and her family when I lived in Texas. After failing to find a flight, I rented a car, and with Taylor, made the 24 hour drive to attend the funeral. Once we arrived, it was a barrage of mixed emotions. While it was great seeing all our friends again after such a long time, there was a sadness present with everyone not having Tanya joining the laughter and conversation. The night we arrived was the viewing followed by the funeral the following day. She had a wonderful service and will truly be missed by those who knew her.

Tanya Lynne Gilliam-Griffin 1955-2013.  You will be greatly missed. "Love ya bye".

Later that day, Several of us decided to go out and fish the Griffins private pond, and continue to catch up. We had planned on catching varieties of pan fish, but it turned out to be a bass-a-thon. They had told Taylor and I that there were bass but we weren't expecting to catch them like we did. We also didn't expect to catch the size of bass that we did. There were several landed that even surprised the Griffins. We used top-water plugs, jigs, and several soft plastic baits catching fish with all of them. It was so fun watching these bass explode on different poppers and plugs.

 We were only a few miles away from Lake Fork, but with the quality fish in this pond, we didn't see the need to hit it. We fished a few hours the next day with the same success. We then made the long drive back to Utah. It was a whirlwind trip, but more than worth it.

It was so nice to see my Texas family again. It had been way too long since I had seen them. I loved hanging out again, and can't wait to get back down for a longer trip.

Tanya's grandson with the first bass landed.

Who needs Lake Fork when you can catch this in your back yard?

Taylor with a nice bucket mouth.

The only pan fish caught amoung all the bass.

Taylor lost this top-water popper on his first cast when this bass broke him off. He got it back about 2 hours later when the same bass was caught again.

Cameron showed us how it's done on top-water. 

A surprise Bullhead Catfish on bass gear.

A great way to finish the trip.