'Tis the Season...For Sportsman

Sorry for yet another delay between blog posts but I’ve been super busy as of late. My master’s degree has not only been depleting my already limited vocabulary, but has subdued all creative thought into the traditional notions of formal academia, which for this Cajun boy, simply “ain’t good!” As a result, I rarely ever wish for time to speed up, since time already goes by quick enough, ask my 5 year old Kindergartner who it feels like just yesterday, blessed my wife and I with his presence. However, I can’t help but encourage time to pass by just a little faster than normal. For a number of reasons, but mainly these three: 1) My masters. Each passing day signifies me getting closer to enjoying more time with family and less time tied to a computer, researching something way less interesting than well, just about anything! 2) Its still 100 degree’s here in TX….and in my best Forrest Gump voice, “That’s all I have to say about that!” and 3) with the appeal of the approaching “cooler” (anything less than 95 degrees) South TX temperatures starts the greatest time of the year if you’re a sportsman….Fall!

Fall, over the course of my life has become my favorite time of the year, and even though it starts the dreary path to shorter winter days, it spawns a life of its own. As a sports fan, I don’t think its gets any better than fall. In baseball, each team by this point in the season, has played over 145 games in the heat of the summer to get down to the nitty-gritty of playing for a chance to represent their league in the World Series. Additionally, fall officially kicks off football season. From Friday night lights, to college and pro…all of the blood and sweat shed during the summer two-a-days and training camps are put into action with the opening kickoff. As a result, each ravenous fan base, regardless of team affiliation vows that “their” team will be the next to hoist the Lombardi Trophy or claim the title as National Champions. In short, it’s an exciting time to be a sports fan, however it’s an even better time to be a sportsman.

Fall is the apex of hunting and fishing for a number of reasons, and like sports, earmarks the beginning of each season. For hunting, from small game to large prey, the season is just getting ready to kick off. Deer hunters, similar to how quarterback’s study film, do much of the same, with establishing gameplans on how to take that first buck of the season with their bow, especially after their game cams reveal and confirm that ole “drop tines” is feeding in a certain food plot day after day. Fishing is much of the same, having the presence of cooling temperatures, earmarks the start of the white shrimp exodus into the estuary and in turn all predatory gamefish, particularly trout and redfish, turn into voracious gluttons. Not only does this make them easy prey for fisherman, but a great supplement to a family dinner of Jamabalaya or white beans with andouille sausage, as the whole family gathers to cheer their team to victory…”Who Dat!”

Its moments like the one aforementioned, that lead to fall being responsible for etching itself into my memory. I’ve had so many good memories that in the word’s of James Earl Jones in the movie Field of Dreams “The memories are so thick, you have to brush them away from your face.” Its events like Derek Jeter’s infamous flip play against the Oakland Athletic’s in the ALCS to remind me of shucking oysters with my roomates in an apartment complex at LSU. Its outings with my dad in Port Sulphur, as we caught a limit of trout while listening to Jim Henderson’s play-by-play on 870am as the “Ain’ts” played (keep in mind I was a saints fan before and after the “Dome Patrol” and the Drew Brees era). My dad after the opponent would score, would always look at me and say, “I’m sure glad I’m not one of those sucka’s in the Dome right now….Oh, I got another one!”, while he chuckled.

From stopping at the fruit stands in Jesuit Bend to pick up a flat of creole tomatoe’s and a bag of Becnel Satsuma’s, to scrubbing the daylights out of the boat and the truck to get the love bugs off. There is no season greater than the fall, and although it doesn’t officially start till Tuesday, 23 September, all the signs are upon us that it’s here for the next couple of months.

So, I wish each of you a happy and hunting fishing season, and I hope everyone has the opportunity to make memories that mark the hands of time!

God Bless and Tight Lines!

Chris