If you’ve ever tried chasing summer panfish when the mercury hits 101 degrees, you already know it isn’t for the faint of heart. The fish aren’t lounging up shallow anymore; they’re holding deep, locked tight against heavy timber, and they are bulletproof picky.
Recently, I hit the water with my trusty Falcon rod, looking to pull some giant bull bluegill out of the thick cypress and tupelo roots. But little did I know, the fishing trip was only the second craziest event of my week.
Spot-and-Stalk Fishing in the Dog Days of Summer
My truck dashboard read a brutal 101 degrees when I backed the trailer into the water that morning. To trick these stubborn summer bream, you can’t just toss a bait out and hope for the best.
- The Tackle Secret: Use the absolute lightest line, lightest split-shot, and smallest float you can possibly get away with.
- The Presentation: These fish are heavily pressured, and the last thing you want is for them to feel any resistance when they mouth your bait.
- The Strategy: This time of year, fishing feels a lot more like spot-and-stalk hunting. I was moving fast, dropping right beside every single cypress knee and root trying to find an aggressive fish willing to play.
And land them we did—pulling a gorgeous, dark-purple bull bluegill with massive shoulders right out of the timber. But as fun as that fight was, it completely paled in comparison to the disaster waiting for me on dry land.
The Homestead “Cowboy” Disaster
While I was out working the trees, it got me thinking about a phone call I got from my buddy Chris. My wife Anna and I raise miniature Dexter cattle on our homestead—compact little cattle where a grown bull only hits about 900 pounds. They’re fantastic for the farm, but they led to a catastrophic series of events when two of my buddies decided to jump into the Dexter business and bought a few cows from us.
Out of the blue, Chris called and asked if Dennis and I could run over to his pasture to help him band his bull calf. What we failed to ask—and what Chris conveniently forgot to mention—was that this “calf” was already six months old.
Even though Dexters are a miniature breed, a six-month-old bull is pure muscle. To make matters worse, Chris didn’t have a working cattle chute or a head gate. We were about to do some raw, unfiltered cowboy work—which is exactly why I brought my heavy rope.
After a massive struggle out in the open pasture just trying to lasso a moving target while dodging an unhappy momma cow, we managed to herd them into a thirty-foot dog run, separate momma, and trap the calf.
Knowing the animal was panicking in the brutal heat, I lunged, grabbed a handful of tail and a back leg, and Dennis piled on right behind me. By this point, I had fresh cow manure smeared all the way up both arms.
The Ultimate Anticlimax
Pinned to the dirt, I screamed at Chris to bring me the banding tool—his one and only job. His response? He had laid it down somewhere in the high grass and completely lost it.
After his wife finally tracked it down and tossed it to us, Dennis and I took a massive, exhausted breath, rolled that calf over to finally get down to business… and discovered there were literally no nuts.
Dennis looked up at me with absolute confusion, turned to Chris, and delivered the line of the year: “It’s a heifer!”
We had spent hours sweating, wrestling, stressing, and getting coated head-to-toe in cow crap for absolutely zero reason because Chris hadn’t checked under the hood first!
Bringing It All Home: Stopping the Play-Cowboy Stress
Driving home that day, washing the manure off my arms with Dude Wipes, it really got my wheels turning. We had spent all day wrestling, sweating, and wearing ourselves completely out over a problem that didn’t even exist.
And honestly? How many times do we do that exact same thing in our daily lives? We twist ourselves into mental knots, panic over tomorrow, and try to micro-manage every single detail, carrying a heavy weight we were never meant to hold.
That’s when we have to stop playing cowboy and point our eyes toward Christ. In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus tells us plainly not to worry about tomorrow, because our Heavenly Father already knows every single thing we need. When we surrender that control to Him, we don’t have to wrestle the world in our own weak strength.
If you’re walking through a heavy season of stress or anxiety today, just hand the rope over to the Lord. Let Him handle it. He’s got you completely covered.
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