http://texasflycaster.com Fly Fishing Culture on the Skids Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:14:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Copyright © 2010 Texas Flycaster sdphoto@mac.com (Shannon Drawe Photography) sdphoto@mac.com (Shannon Drawe Photography) posts 1440 http://www.dentonartist.com/texasflycaster.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://texasflycaster.com/wordpress 144 144 Fly Fishing and Culture of Fly Fishing Fly Fishing Culture on the Skids fly fishing, culture,fly tying, fishing reports, fly fishing gear,fly rods,fly reels,kayak fishing,kayaks Shannon Drawe Photography Shannon Drawe Photography sdphoto@mac.com no no http://texasflycaster.com/two-weeks-gone/ http://texasflycaster.com/two-weeks-gone/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:02:26 +0000 shannon http://texasflycaster.com/?p=1750 http://texasflycaster.com/two-weeks-gone/feed/ 1 00:01:01 Most corporate vacations are two weeks. Most self employed folks think two weeks vacation is a luxury they can't afford in this economy. Plenty of ... Most corporate vacations are two weeks. Most self employed folks think two weeks vacation is a luxury they can't afford in this economy. Plenty of folks are unemployed (who knows how many), and some folks just go fishing. If you lived in North Texas, and had two weeks to fish - no strings attached except for the fact you had to drive to where you would fish - where would you go, and what would you do? In North Texas, we have seen monsoonal rains to start the month, and the resulting soaked ground, refilled lakes, green grass that needs mowing, and now ... a heat wave that is steaming the moisture away and predicted to cause a "feels like" temperature of 110-degrees fahrenheit today. So, the fact we need to go somewhere cooler is a given. Although I personally could use 4-dollar gas to be able to afford a new towing truck for the Airstream (aka. Silver Fly Shack), gas is affordable enough that I could go a state or maybe two away. However, this IS Texas Fly Caster, and there should be plenty of ideas without leaving Texas. Instead of taking two weeks to hash this out, how about a "Five Lakes in Five Days" expedition? Or, how about a "Five Coastal Spots in Five Days" expedition? Are there five rivers in Texas? CAMERA REPORT UPS delivered my Sanyo Xacti a couple of days ago, and it is a visibly and audibly different fly fishing video camera now. They replaced the "lens assembly" at a rough cost of 130. usd, and apparently they upgraded the firmware as well. The camera now talks! The images are extremely sharp and the color more accurate than before. I don't think a simple lens change would be the cause of that, so I am betting on the firmware upgrade they performed. If you have a Sanyo Xacti 6mp. camera, see about a firmware upgrade - you may be able to do it yourself. The Contour HD is a fine camera with a seductive 135 degree view (super wide angle), but there are some deal killers on it including; 1) It's splash-able but not submersible 2) The sliding on-off record switch sucks - cost me my only striper on Monday 3) The unit I am trying has already lost its rubber hinge that holds the back rubber cover over the controls and connections. The cover still snaps on, but when you take it off, it doesn't dangle. Now where did I sit that down? However, if you watch the video below, you immediately see what I mean by seductive (point-and-shoot, and earth bending angles). Lefty would say keep that elbow IN and on the same plane, but then he doesn't see what's in the backcast now does he?! In my defense, it is a sinking line with a huge bunny - literally a rabbit - hanging from the fluorocarbon leader. Culture on the Skids, Life Observed, On The Road, Photography Shannon Drawe Photography no no http://texasflycaster.com/new-fly-fishing-merch/ http://texasflycaster.com/new-fly-fishing-merch/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:08:14 +0000 shannon http://texasflycaster.com/?p=1635 http://texasflycaster.com/new-fly-fishing-merch/feed/ 0 http://texasflycaster.com/heres-what-were-gonna-do/ http://texasflycaster.com/heres-what-were-gonna-do/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:59:47 +0000 shannon http://texasflycaster.com/?p=1602 http://texasflycaster.com/heres-what-were-gonna-do/feed/ 3 00:01:01 Talk about scattered from here to there, and everywhere in between. We've got a hurricane that came in to South Padre Island, Texas, yesterday about ... Talk about scattered from here to there, and everywhere in between. We've got a hurricane that came in to South Padre Island, Texas, yesterday about 100 miles south of Brownsville, with bands that, if they hold together, will reach all the way to North Texas. Texas, as you may recall, is a pretty darn big state. From Denton's door to Grandma's door in Weslaco, Texas, is 530 miles. The bands from the hurricane are plenty big, and will pack some rain, but F2 Hurricane Alex was far enough south to spare the Valley severe wind damage and tidal surge associated with most hurricanes. High wind gusts did register on the Island, but sustained winds are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to hurricane damage in general - except, that is, for rain. Although Hurricane Beulah was a bad mother of a storm, the aftermath of rain as she ran up the Rio Grande proved to be the real second punch that no one at the time saw coming. If you're wondering, yes I was there for that one. So we will just have to wait and see what happens down there as the hurricane winds down, and the rain continues to fall out. "It ain't over 'till it's over" - Yogi Berra 1973, Here's What We're Gonna' Do (in the meantime) We (input is freely accepted) have to come up with a new camera and / or camera system so that you can get some action video of fishing. I currently have on loan a neat little camera called the Contour HD, and although I have yet to get it in the field, it's a frontrunner in the potential search for a replacement for the Sanyo Xacti. Also being given serious scrutiny are the GoPro HD and the Oregon Scientific ATC 5K. I have to admit these cameras do rip open that envelope I have been complaining about for years, namely that most of today's video and still cameras are based on the last century's version of what cameras "should be", which is a box that holds a lens. These are anything but boxy. By sheer degree of coverage alone, the Contour is light years ahead with a 135-degree field of view. There's no monitor, or screen to squint to see in bright sun either. Instead, it has two laser dots that you position the camera with, turn it on and off with a simple slider switch on top of the barrel. All controls are covered by a rubber cup on the backside, and that includes the small usb connection and micro sd card slot. The Contour could best be summed up as functional. It is NOT waterproof though, but can handle getting splashed. There is a waterproof case for it, but that eliminates the microphone pickup. I will be shooting some sample video with it in the next few days, so check back to see how that turns out. What the Contour lacks in amateur comforts, the Oregon Scientific ATC 5K more than makes up for. It still eschews the boxy mentality of old cameras for something that looks like it belongs on the space shuttle, and has the pop twist of coming in different colors. The 5k has a flip up screen on back and has a huge upside of running on double-A batteries. In case you were asleep, the whole world now runs on double-A batteries now. By contrast, the Contour recharges an internal battery while connected to USB power (or as I am discovering along with you - a usb plugged battery charger). NOTHING is as convenient as AA's. Besides the power source, this baby comes right out of the box waterproof to ten feet! Add a screen for seeing what you're getting, and half the price of the Contour ... stay tuned. The third camera, GoPro, is a recommendation by a very experienced multi-media professional who is lending me his Contour for a tryout. All I have to go on with this one, unless readers can advise TFC, is doing the research and message board reading. It's not nearly as fun as field testing one of these, so you can expect the hands-on experience to lend an edge to the Contour. What Happened? The camera that I have been using for almost three years, the Sanyo Xacti, a pistol grip of a video and still camera, quit working Culture on the Skids, Fly Tying, Photography, Raw Fly Footage Shannon Drawe Photography no no http://texasflycaster.com/this-and-that/ http://texasflycaster.com/this-and-that/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 22:32:05 +0000 shannon http://texasflycaster.com/?p=1504 http://texasflycaster.com/this-and-that/feed/ 2 http://texasflycaster.com/fish-porn-exposed-part-2/ http://texasflycaster.com/fish-porn-exposed-part-2/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:17:03 +0000 shannon http://texasflycaster.com/?p=1214 http://texasflycaster.com/fish-porn-exposed-part-2/feed/ 1