Month: November 2023

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Low Transition Takeoff Showoffs

With Veterans Day approaching I wanted to include something in our podcast about veterans and Veterans Day, so Lisa suggested that I tell a story, possibly a funny story. Since I was dubbed “The Storyteller” a few years back during a trip to Venice, La., I’ve tried to live up to that title. I tried to think of a funny story that I haven’t already told a million times and a very funny story came to mind. I did something a little different for the podcast, but I still wanted to share this funny story with y’all for Veterans Day. Enjoy!

I wanted to use a video or two to serve as a visual aid for my story, and the video below is called low pass. Getting an up-close look at that is very rare but a couple of my squadron mates got a little more than they bargained for one morning.

It was the late fall of 2001 at a big Naval Air Base deep in the heart of the Nevada desert. Our squadron was spending a couple weeks at the air base dropping bombs from our F-18 Hornets. This is something just about every fighter/attack squadron does during the year to keep the pilots proficient in the delivery of weapons and most of it is done at desert bombing ranges while operating from the base. On this occasion, we were about halfway through our two-week detachment and it was getting boring. One thing that filled our time during the detachment was running. At the time I was competing in marathons and the base provided a lot of desolate roads to run on while training for an upcoming race. Two of my running team members were also on the detachment with me so we did a lot or running together when we were off work. One place we liked to run was an old dusty dirt road that parallelled the runway at the air base. The old road was separated from the runway by 20-30 yards and a high chain-link fence with barbed wire at the top. There were reasons for the barbed wire and if anyone wandered into the runway area it could be very dangerous.

My two running teammates were officers in the squadron, but they didn’t fly the jets and their jobs were more of a logistical nature. We had a few officers in the squadron that managed the maintenance effort and served as a liaison between us enlisted folks and the pilots. Both officers were younger than me and we really got to know each other during our training runs. Both officers were single at the time, and I loved to listen to their stories while we were on our runs. Even though their lifestyles were a little different than mine, I was constantly entertained by their antics while on detachment.

On this particular day I was coming to work at 12 noon and working a 24 on and 24 off shift. When I walked into our maintenance area, I saw my two officer running mates standing off in a corner talking quietly with another officer. My two officer friends were bandaged in different places around their bodies including bandages on their faces and exposed arms. They both looked like they had been in a fight with a bobcat, so I walked over and asked them what happened. What followed next was one of the funniest things I ever heard and saw in the Navy. They explained to me how they had met a young single pretty lady that worked as a bartender at the officers’ club. They really wanted to impress her so they invited her to drive out to the fence at the very end of the runway to watch a couple of our jets take off up-close and personal. The plan was for my two officer friends to enter the coded gate at the end of the runway area and walk out to the runway itself to video the take-off with a video camera. Their new lady friend was going to stand on the other side of the gate and observe the takeoff from afar for safety reason.

My two officer friends also talked to a few pilots and told them that they would be at the end of the runway filming and would like them the showoff a little since their new lady friend would be watching. Now, if there’s something I know about fighter pilots, it’s the fact that they don’t run across this level of stupidity too often and when it does occur, they take full advantage of it. Little did my two officer friends know that pilots are pros at showing off and they put on a show alright. My two officer friends told their lady friend where to stand and they both entered the runway area. They walked out to the end of the runway and waited. Soon you could hear the jets taking off from the other end of the runway and they started recording the takeoff. As the first jet came towards them, I’m sure they were in awe at the jet flying so low and so fast right at them. Unfortunately, the pilot could see them as he approached them standing at the end of the runway and he decided to give them a show like they’d never seen before. The pilot approached them at about 20 feet in altitude and screaming at around 300-400 mph. Just before the pilot and his screaming hornet got to my friends, he pulled back on the stick and popped the two big engines into full afterburner. The jet stood up on end and just a few feet below was my two officer friends. It was like an explosion when the jet blast hit them, and they both went tumbling down the runway and pinned them both against the fence near where their lady friend was standing in a state of shock. The two officers were covered in road rash and bloodied from tumbling on the concrete. They were in need of medical attention, and they dropped their lady friend off so they could go get changed and bandaged up.

They were a site when I first saw them and I laughed hysterically at their story. What was even better was the video. The video was deleted shortly after I viewed it because of the embarrassment and also, I’m sure the pilot would have been in a little trouble for intentionally blasting my buddies down the runway. The video was everything I thought it would be, complete with the fast and low approach and the subsequent cursing and tumbling friends and camera. When I watched the video and got to the part when they went tumbling with the super hot lady friend standing by, I nearly had a aneurism from laughing so hard.

The video above kind of gives you an idea of what it would have looked like that day if you could just imagine the two dudes in the video standing at the end of the runway instead of the safe side of the fence. The video below is an example of what jet blast can do on the aircraft carrier. The video below shows a final checker that got to close to the action. One of my jobs on the flight deck was final checker and I spent a lot of time around that jet blast.

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Crockpot Crawfish Mac and Cheese

Recently, my friend Chris asked me if I had a crawfish mac and cheese recipe and I didn’t, but it got my culinary gears a turning so I came up with something I’ve wanted to try for a while. I’ve never made mac and cheese in a crockpot before, but I recently saw a recipe, so I decided to come up with a crawfish mac and cheese recipe to slow cook in the crockpot. I gotta say that it turned out great. I think the secret was the heavy whipping cream.

Ingredients:

  • 1 16 ounce box of elbow macaroni (uncooked)
  • 12 ounces of peeled and cleaned crawfish
  • 2 cups of milk
  • 1 pint of heavy whipping cream
  • 4 ounces of cream cheese
  • 1 cup of chopped sweet Vidalia onion
  • 8 ounces of shredded or small cubed Gouda cheese
  • 8 ounces of shredded or small cubed sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 4 ounces of American cheese
  • 1 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning or to your liking
  • 1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
  • salt and pepper to taste

This was pretty easy to make. I just sprayed the bottom of the crockpot with Pam to keep the noodles from sticking to the bottom. I just added all of the ingredients above, stirred it well, and made sure the macaroni was covered, with the crockpot on low. It was kinda thin to start with, but it thickened up as time went by and the cheese started to melt. I kept the dish covered and started stirring after the first hour. It took about 2 hours covered on low and then I kicked it up to high for the last 30 minutes. Top it with breadcrumbs and serve it as a side dish with a nice juicy steak. Enjoy!!

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From Looking Up to Looking Down

This week I’ve gotten out every day in some capacity and the bite has been somewhat transitory for me. The way I view the fishing pattern from fall to winter and spring to summer is pretty simple, when we go into winter the fish start looking down for their meals, vice looking up. During the transition from spring to summer, the fish start looking up for their meals, vice looking down. This transition occurs around the time of the turnover, both fall and again in late spring. For me, this week was the transition.

On Monday we had very fair weather, but I could sense that the changes were coming, mainly because of my weather apps on my phone, but changes were in the air. When Lisa and I were returning from our tournament on Saturday afternoon we ran into a fisherman in the back of the creek that said he had caught 15 fish around the area we saw him so that prompted me to check the back areas of the creek even though the water is still pretty clouded back here. I spent most of my morning in the back tossing the worm around and (as my grandson puts it) catching Jakes. I made a quick swing through the creek but I wasn’t very impressed with what I found so I called it a day with nothing but smaller fish to show for it. The best thing about Monday was the shrimp boil we had for dinner.

On Tuesday the front was still coming through and the fish responded well. I got on a little pattern where the fish were coming out of the brush and slamming the Lanier Baits Hard Swimmer in the pearl white color and if they missed, I could follow it up with the shaky head and usually get them to hit that. It was a 1-2 punch that worked around the brush for some pretty fun fish. Here’s my best five from Tuesday. The three biggest came from the Hard Swimmer.

Wednesday was the first day of post front and it was bone chilling cold, and the wind was getting it, kinda like the perfect day for the SpotSticker Mini Me spinnerbait on points. I didn’t last long out in the cold, and I took it back to the house but not before catching a couple nice fish a white bladed Mini Me. Here’s my two biggest from the spinnerbait outing.

Yesterday I was back at it and I brought my video camera to see if I could get a little shaky head footage. It turned out to be a good 4 hour trip, from mid-morning till mid-afternoon. Nothing but shaky head in the wind using Minn Kota Spot Lock upwind of the brush and just making cast tight around and through the brush. My worm of choice this week was the Big Scented TRD from Zman with a Boss Outdoors 1/4-ounce jig head. Boss Outdoors is an “American Made” company, and they have the best keeper I’ve found for Elaztech plastics.

Here’s a video I made yesterday using the TRD and the Boss. If you watch closely on the video, you can see that most of the time the fish hit the bait right in the structure.

Probably the Big TRD was the best bait this week with the Hard Swimmer and the Mini Me doing well for me too.

I’m still without sonar so I don’t really know what the water temps are, but I’d guess it to be in the low 60’s to upper 50’s right now and the lake continues to drop. Right now, it’s over 7 feet below full pool and I’m just about ready to give up on moving the dock out to chase water. Unless we get substantial rain soon our dock will be on dry ground.

On another note, be sure and check out our new Friday Fish Fry podcast a week from today. We’ll be launching our first episode at 8pm next Friday, the 10th of November. We’ve been in the Cast Away man cave recording for the past few weeks, and we should have a good show for ya’ll. We’re looking forward to it!

Also, we will be doing another seminar for young fishermen over in Dallas in 2 weeks so be sure and check out the flyer for more info.