Pond Boss Forums INTRO Bob Lusk's blog I love fall!

Greetings, fans of Pond Boss.
Here I sit, in a hotel room in College Station, Texas, savoring the Aggie's win last night against OU. We've had a fun time. My brother, Ron, invited me and a group of his friends to tag along with him for a weekend in Aggieland. We've had a blast. A great meal Friday night at Christopher's Grill, a trip to the Dixie Chicken and then Midnight Yell Practice in Kyle Field. Son Jonathan was a yell leader in 2003-04 and took Ron, his friends and I on an inside tour of the Midnight Yell. We followed the yell leaders on their march into the stadium and were on the field the whole time. After Yell practice, we called it a day and were asleep just around 1:30. Up at 6 sharp, Ron and I drove toward Bastrop, Texas, for a lake consultation with a fellow from Austin. Then, back to Aggieland before most people were out of bed. And, then there was the game.


Step off in the Quad. The Corps of Cadets, the heartbeat of Aggieland, form up and head to the game Saturday afternoon.



The Aggie Band. Texas A&M won the game and halftime, too.



Fall is here at LL,2 and the grandpeeps love to play in the leaves. Good times.



As always, we need to see some fish on this post! Here's a threadfin shad, (top) and a gizzard shad. See the differences?



Bass eat some interesting things. This bass regurgitated a partially digested gar. Count on us to show you some weird or disgusting things...but I know our audience. You pondmeisters love this kind of stuff.



Look at the pigmentation on this 7 lb bass' tail. I've seen several bass in this lake with big, distinct black pigmentation.



We harvested tilapia and had a group of friends over to share the bounty.



Here's some of our crew. Granddaughter Jentry, the Pond Boss, yours truly, Josh Flowers and Chad Fikes, staff fisheries biologists.

Earlier in October, Debbie and Gayle (my editorial assistant) wanted to set up a photo shoot to get some images for our Christmas cards. Here's what they did.



Back in 2005, our home burned down. We decided to rebuild. Debbie tried to be finished by Christmas, 2006, but it wasn't to be. So, we wanted to celebrate Christmas at LL,2, so we found a neat spot across the pond and we planted a living Christmas tree. We celebrated Christ's birth and enjoyed family around that tree. Here we are, 2010 and that gangly tree is almost 9 feet tall, up from the 4 feet it was when we planted it. It's overcome all Texas odds from intense heat to a shortage of moisture and is doing quite well. So, we decided to decorate it early and use it. We'll spend time there around Christmas, too. Here's some of the photos for those two days.



Gayle wanted to display the traveling lure collection before it headed off the California for its next adventure.

In the third week of October, I went to Cushing, Oklahoma to help a man design a management strategy for his ranch fishing lakes. Spent two days there, gathering data and making a plan for him. This is a nice bass from one of his lakes.



We got to hang with the grandpeeps for Halloween. I love those kiddos.



On Halloween, we electrofished James Holt's lake. Here's a nice hybrid striper from is north Texas lake.

After James' lake, I headed to Eagle's Nest preserve, to be involved with Lee Roy and Tandy Mitchell's Cinemark board of director's meeting. My role was to entertain and teach the board and Cinemark staff about the Wildlife and Fisheries management program at Eagle's Nest. I have a story to tell you...it will be part of my editor's letter in the Jan-Feb issue of Pond Boss. It involves the fellow in the photo below.



Roger Staubach was one of those role models when I was a teenager. I got to spend a little bit of time with him Monday and Tuesday of this week before heading to College Station. Be sure to read the Staubach story next issue.