East Texas

Monday Evening Sidewalk

shannon | December 18, 2017

Rio Grande Valley and Back

Welcome to a late afternoon Monday Morning Sidewalk. That’s the rub, nailing a regular column down to Monday morning sometimes, just sometimes, goes over deadline. You’re probably out of your cubicles, cars, offices, and limos and home by now, but I wanted to take a second to bring those of you – who read – up to speed.

It has been a whirlwind week out of town, starting with the loss, and Heaven’s gain of my 98-year-old Grandmother in the Rio Grande Valley. At 98, you can guess that she was ready and willing to go on home, [ppw id=”183910689″ description=”Holiday Update” price=”.25″]

and there was no pain or suffering. It was one of those kinds of dying, the kind we would be more than willing to receive on a dark night with clouds and stars above.

Of course, that breaks my last human bond to the Borderland where I grew up, and that is the strange bitterness that goes with the sweetness. There’s no grand reason to go home anymore, and that is strange to me.

So with a little more than a thousand miles under my feet since last Tuesday, I am back where I began – in a cold, wet and foggy North Texas. If there’s anything going on besides dinky TPWD stocker trout around here? I don’t know about it.

The Pop Up Shop here in Denton is going great guns, and merchandise is running very low. This is the last week of course, so be sure and visit the shop at 301 South Locust St. in Denton – if you are looking to support local artists, and provide a boost to the local economy (instead of the invisible stockholders of Amazon). For a look at merchandise, go to the Texas Fly Caster Instagram feed!

I am going to be manning the Pop Up Shop for the next few days, so I will bring the Texas fly fishing community up to speed, or MORE LIKELY, catch up with the Texas fly fishing community in coming days. I certainly need to close out the year with one final Texas Fly Fishing Report (yes, the original on YouTube), and a Christmas list for fly fishers, and BEFORE YEAR’S END, another Top Ten Fly Fishing Music Countdown (probably an audio broadcast).

There’s probably another trip to Houston to see family for ACTUAL Christmas in a few days, so you have to believe I will be almost as busy as you this holiday season. The schedule is about to clear though, and that starts in the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I am looking for someone who wants to hit Dangerfield for chain pickerel during the holiday break, and if anyone in the Galveston area wants to show me to their fish? All you have to do is give me a text or call at the number you know, and I will give you the potential dates. Our cold North Central and Northeast Texas weather has probably given us the break that we need for both flounder in Galveston and those chain pickerel in Daingerfield.

There’s going to be a very rough cut to free/paid reading in January, and that is because the part of this site that separates paid/free content is a POS that is more expensive than you can probably believe – you’d laugh at me if you knew. I will try and bring you up-to-speed before end of year, but essentially everything that is “Paid Content” will be rough cut as far as the “teaser” opening content.c

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Texas Fly Fishing Report Summer Winds Down Doldrums Around

shannon | August 18, 2017 | 0 Comments

Fly Fishing in Texas this week

Thanks again for watching the Texas Fly Fishing Report! Please suggest changes where needed – I won’t complain. I think the audio intro is a bit long-ish.

A hard week on the fly for me – skunked twice. Watch for the details in the video. I was advised to be wary of what I heard (and have been told that many times in the past), and it proved out when it came to Lake Grapevine two days ago.

If you can get to the BP and Rollover Pass, it sounds interesting. But then, I am relying – not on all you readers across the state – but relying on televised reporting and the TPWD fishing reports. I have always had a soft spot for Rollover Pass because there is an incredible amount of movement there. I heard a long time ago they were going to fill that in, but I never heard any more about it? I sure would like to hear from readers, rather than trying to discern second-hand information from the sources I am using. Accuracy is very important to me, so my sources need to be honed and more accountable.

If YOU ARE A GUIDE, feel free to call in your report from wherever you are, and we can record and publish it – as is, unedited and heavily (at my cost) promoted.

Cinco de Mayo Texas Fly Fishing Report

shannon | May 5, 2017 | 0 Comments

The Original Texas Fly Caster Texas Fly Fishing Report

Hello to all you fly fishers tuning in today – from Texas and beyond, via the worldwide webbage. This report is long overdue, and contains a huge variety of information for your digestion, and indigestion. If you were wondering what books to get, what camera to check out, what fly fishing costume to buy – I don’t have all the answers, but at least I GO THERE. Thanks for watching. Have a great Cinco and a great weekend.

It’s a weekend full of events – like the Lake Fork World Championship Bass on Fly Tournament. That tournament has kicked my bass so many times now, I had to take a break from the bass kicking! If anyone has a post-tournament report, feel free to get it to me as soon as you can!

Rain Mostly Kept at Bay on Water Wednesday in North Texas

shannon | February 15, 2017 | 0 Comments

fly fishing in daingerfield lake chain pickerel texas weather van vleck tornadoes texas rain map

3Ms Courtesy Photo 2017 Daingerfield State Park Texas.

We had a close brush with much needed (on a yard level) rain over the past two days, but today is a bright sunny day with no rain on the radar for about another week. All we recorded here amounted to barely an inch of precipitation. Just in case you think rain is all about water, it’s not! These cloudy rainy days also trigger fish bites in lesser known places – like Daingerfield Lake in East Texas.

EAST TEXAS DAINGERFIELD LAKE

Daingerfield is a lake known for its abundant, perhaps overabundant, supply of chain pickerel. These East Texas chain pickerel have proven to be extremely susceptible to the fly year after year. But they really come out to play on overcast days more than any other time. So I was not too surprised to hear that this past weekend was not so productive for the 3M’s at Daingerfield.

Daingerfield is a fantastic place to pursue an unusual fish, in a very beautiful setting; surrounded by pine trees, a smallish lake that is completely fishable by kayak. It is perfect for family overnights. It also has crappie, largemouth and sand bass in fair numbers. The lake is a no wake lake, meaning you can bring a boat in, but you can’t go fast enough to make a wake. Why would you want to anyway? This lake is tiny by boating standards, and the quietness is one of the first things that will strike you Metroplexians – right between the ears. This lake is close, and is truly an ESCAPE from what ails you.

Here is a link to past stories on Lake Daingerfield – the Daingerfield Archives on Texas Fly Caster.
Here is a link to Daingerfield’s TPWD entry – TPWD Daingerfield

ON TO THE WEATHER

We did have a sweep of rain across North Texas earlier this week, which is great news; it keeps the lakes topped off, and puts pressure on the USACE to release water leading into Spring 2017. Those water releases are key to: 1) the sand bass bite in creeks, 2) big releases in rivers that trigger hybrid bites, and 3) enhances our carp habitat everywhere. Right now, we are looking at consecutive year setting itself up to be off the charts for fly fishing inland Texas waters.

What is not included is a run of very bad weather that hit the Texas Gulf Coast yesterday. Van Vleck apparently suffered the brunt of these unusual February storms. This is dangerous stuff for those of you fly fishing the Texas Gulf Coast.

The map still tells the tale for Texas, plain and simple.

See more details here TEXAS DROUGHT MAP

Special thanks to the 3M’s for sending in their photos from Daingerfield this past weekend!

Monday Morning Sidewalk – Post Christmas Roll

shannon | December 26, 2016 | 0 Comments

Winter Wonders and Wanders on The Fly

Good morning. I can imagine you are probably enjoying the perfection of this dying year’s calendar, still off from work for another week if you’re lucky, and looking for a fish to catch – trying to get lucky. Well, the temperature here in Houston went over 80-degrees yesterday, and when I was checking with a couple of fly fishing friends in DFW, the temperature hit the high 70’s there as well. Amazing.

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What’s not so amazing if you’re traveling, is the front that tailed out just over the Texas line? is looking like a hurricane formed over land. There’s a counterclockwise swirl of ice, snow and rain that looks like it reaches almost all the way to Canada – and it’s moving east. Brutal.

I hope Santa Claus was good to you yesterday, and you got whatever you wanted whether it was fly or not. I did get the missing piece of my Under Armour 4.0 (blizzard weight) long johns to cover this bag of bones, so now maybe it will get cold enough to use.

Plans for saltwater fly fishing, due to my open-ended work schedule, have been delayed until next weekend at the very least, so I can get back and hang one project, make the turn, and come back here during better tides. Sounds like a plan, right? I hear God laughing. Well, with this weather why not go home anyway?

I was able to get out to the neighborhood pond yesterday afternoon (walking distance), and entice some marauding bass into biting a tiny fly. There’s just something about fly fishing on Christmas Day … reminds me of surfing Encinitas on Christmas Day in another life.

In another month we’ll probably have a clear picture on whether Texas will have a winter this year, or not. If this year is like last, it’ll turn out without a winter, and with a torrential spring. We should be so lucky!

If you’re as dependent on seeing new information here as others are, you may suffer a little withdrawal this week, or not? It’s almost impossible to tell what this week will bring, and a little time off is deserved … by all, right? There’s still a lot to do in the Texas fly fishing world regardless of season, and there are opportunities being sent our way at the moment. So I can’t exactly say, “Stay Tuned,” and I can’t encourage you to tune out either!

[/ppw]Whatever fly fishing you do, be sure to let me/us know about it, and have a great week!