Bass get a break as Bush skips fish filming

By Scott Lindlaw
The Associated Press

	AP President Bush and national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice meet with the National Security Council via video teleconference yesterday at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
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CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush skipped the scheduled filming of a fishing show yesterday, possibly to deal with the Iraq crisis, but his catch one day earlier was something to brag about.

"He took the biggest one of the day," a bass weighing nearly 4 pounds, said Roland Martin, host of the Outdoor Life Network program, "Fishing with Roland Martin."

Bush had planned to spend yesterday with his father, the former president, and Martin and his crew fishing on the pond at Bush's Crawford ranch.

Instead, Martin, the president and a Secret Service agent trolled for bass Friday.

The crew was filming at the pond on Friday and Bush "came motoring down" in his pickup to chat, Martin said. They discussed the next day's scheduled shoot.

Bush looked at his watch at about 5:30 p.m. and said he had time to "make a couple casts, so we jumped into the boat real quick."

Iraq didn't come up. "He didn't really talk about politics at all," Martin said. "He was just relieved to have a minute to fish."

"The president was very relaxed," Martin said.

The TV host said Bush is "a very accomplished fisherman. He handled the tackle really well and caught three fish," Martin said. "He complains he doesn't fish there enough, so he misses that a lot."
 
The White House took photos of Bush fishing with the Outdoor Life Network crew, but did not release them publicly.

The Outdoor Life Network will air the program in August, Martin said.

Yesterday proved a perfect example of what happens when the president's job clashes with his hobby, Martin said.

Martin and his crew returned to the ranch at about 6:30 a.m., but Bush already was in conferences in the ranch house.

As Martin and his crew cleaned the boat for another excursion on the pond, Bush's entourage pulled up.

"He said, 'Hey, Roland, sorry it didn't work out. I had things to do,' " Martin recalled. "He really wanted to finish, but he had all his things to do."

Martin believed that events in Iraq had forced Bush to cancel the shoot. "He alluded to it. He said, 'I've been busy, all these crises,' " Martin recalled. Militants yesterday threatened to kill and mutilate Thomas Hamill, an American civilian captured in an ambush of a convoy west of Baghdad.

Still, Bush apparently went bicycling yesterday. A half-dozen bikes cruised down a dirt path on the ranch, trailed by a security detail of open carts and cars.

Bush has been bicycling more since a painful right knee late last year forced him to cut back on his usual jogging.

The White House would not release details of Friday or yesterday. Nor did the White House mention that Martin's crew had filmed on the ranch Wednesday.

The administration is sensitive to charges that Bush is loafing at a time of chaos and bloodshed in Iraq. He is spending a week at the ranch, with no public appearances between Tuesday and today.

The White House released a photo of him meeting with his national-security team.

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