Fly Shops
What The Sheet … Cake is Going On Here?
Good Humor Break
Are we about ready for a laugh? Some good old Lucille Ball humor always works for me. Some things never get old, do they? All the seriousness of hurricanes and tragedy aside, for just a minute … we’ll get back to that for real in coming days and weeks. Apparently there are a few organizations stepping up to donate to the recovery causes – information came in since my last post on Monday.
After this hits the digital airwaves, I am headed over to Bayou City Angler to visit with Danny Scarborough, who now works there as well as continuing to guide inside the loop, and visit the one fly shop (that I know of) that has a fundraiser coming this September 24th. Anything else I can find out for you while I’m in the Bayou City (just text me).
Monday Morning Sidewalk
Remembering 911 War Hurricane Harvey Irma Call to Action
Welcome to wherever you are today, this great day called Monday! It’s great because my weekend begins in ernest, with a day of rest from everything that comprises my life as I now know it. You, on the other hand, are just getting wound up, caffeinated, motivated and shoveling the trenches for another week of loving war with work. Count yourself more lucky than I – in that respect. I applaud all of you who have dedicated your time, education, intellect and lives to building your careers on solid ground, and not shifting sand.
911 ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
As the bells chime on the church behind me, I am again reminded this morning of where I was and what I was doing on September 11, 2001. If you replay it like I do (and we should), then you can’t help but still feel melancholy.
What happens when the last WWII veteran dies, do we forget the war? I always thought, as a historian, that living representatives of those events are the ties that bind us to remembering with clarity. Now, our warriors are still engaged in the war, with what I might add is the best set of marching orders yet (best thing the current president has done); moving the decision making from DC fat cats to the battle lines. We have to think of them, the quick and the dead, as well.
READ MORE YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO! – Continue Reading
Wildcard Wednesday – A Little Taste of Everything
I couldn’t wait to hit the keys this morning!
News flowed in last night, and I also burned some old fashion fossil fuel to find out whether one of my stories had finally hit the newsstand – and it did in the last 48-hours.
ADD TRAVIS TO THE ZEEBS LIST
Lake Travis is now on the list of Texas lakes infested with the zebra mussel. This means the Colorado system is now infected with the zeebs, and that news comes just days after the lake that feeds the famous Guadalupe River – Canyon Lake – was put on the zebra mussel list. My prediction, many years ago, was that now that the zebra mussel has hit near the State Government’s home, we will see more media attention than ever before – paid to the zebra mussel and more money than ever before – spent to study this problem (in perpetuity). Watch the budget-bean-counters try to figure out how to get us to pay for their new millions in expenses — to clean the pipes and dams.
After I heard about the recent find at Canyon Lake, I contacted a scientist quoted in one of the articles about that lake’s situation. My primary question was related to a piece of incidental research I had done at a Denton dive shop last week.
At the dive shop, I had asked the gentlemen working at the dive shop whether zebra mussels were still present at Lake Ray Roberts. (I don’t see them shallow anymore.) They stated definitively that they are deep, and everywhere. So we can deduce the zebra mussel likes cooler water temperatures. REMEMBER, the zebra mussel invaded the north first … call them a re-gift from the yankees.
With that amateur information, I contacted Natalie Goldstrohm, Natural Resources Specialist Inland Fisheries Division – Abilene, and asked about the temperature observation.
“Zebra mussels do have water quality thresholds that are optimal for survival and these would include temperature, but would also include water hardness, pH etc. that could impact where zebra mussels can grow. I can’t speak to the likelihood of zebra mussel spreading into the Guadalupe River or how a bottom release dam may influence the spread of zebra mussels. However, since zebra mussels are present in Canyon Lake it could be a possibility that the veligers could be moved to down stream locations during flood events if the water level of goes over conservation pool and over the spillway.” Continue Reading
Monday Morning Sidewalk – Juneteenth Rumble and Shake This Week
This week will be full of fly fishing action –
JUNETEENTH 2017
Good Monday morning! It’s Juneteenth in Texas, and for those of us who don’t know our Texas History; this is the day news finally reached Texas slaves that the emancipation proclamation had been ratified. Texas had about 250-thousand slaves in the State at the time.
If you are reading from North Texas, maybe you felt the rumble and shake of thunder, and we did get a couple of lightning strike, but still no rain in my little neighborhood. It looks like weather was everywhere around us, but my dog only hid in the closet for about ten minutes – just before sunrise.
FULL FLY WEEK
This will be a pretty fantastic week for fly fishing in North Texas (the rest of the State is hot fishing as well!), as there are a couple of days of guiding, a trip to the doctor in between, and plenty more coming my way to tighten up the calendar. It seems like your calendars are loosening up a bit these days, and your timing couldn’t be better either.
If you tuned in to the website or the YouTube channel last week, I always hate to disappoint you, but sometimes the original Texas Fly Fishing Report just can’t be produced – commitments to income, family and life can, and do – get in the way.
However, I did take the time to do some video yesterday, Father’s Day 2017, and had a blast applying a ton of EFFORT and gear to getting unique and interesting video that’ll require production work, but should be out on the TexasFlyCaster YouTube Channel today, and in a post here tomorrow. It’s amazing how easy this stuff is getting to produce. I guess being a professional photographer helps! I think it at least helps maintain certain standards of quality you viewers have come to expect over the years! Those who can – DO, I guess? No scripts required.
If you check the YouTube archives, you’ll see just how rough (long ago dubbed “GONZO”) the old videos were – amazingly bad. The only Gonzos I know of were and are, Hunter S. Thompson and Ted Nugent Double Live respectively, but anyway …
Speaking of ease in the photography / videography / website building realm: Have a look at a startup website I created to raise awareness of my welding work and art here in Denton, Texas – www.dentonwelding.com. Welding is just one of the things that keep me somewhat busy these days, and is one of those factors mentioned in keeping me from being too regular in producing the Texas Fly Fishing Reports. One more shameless plug: if you need a website, be sure to look at www.dentondigital.com. I build those too – no welding required, just some SuperGlue. I bet we can even find a GONZO theme for your site! SORRY FOR ALL THIS SHAMELESS SELF FLAGELLATION. It’s become apparent: I have to help myself a lot more than I realized, and have been getting zero help from the local pro-fly-business population for quite some time. This (self-promotion) is certainly not the fun part of anything I do. That much should be obvious by now.
Thanks for reading this Monday Juneteenth! It’ll be a fishy week for sure! I would say to check the TexasFlyCaster social media feeds, but you’re more likely to find updates on the YouTube Channel once the hot fly fishing action cools down this week. (Besides, twitter and instagram? so 2010!)
Follow-Up Shots Fired Big Box Retailers on Life Support
Fort Worth Backwoods in New Location with new outlook on the fly fishing life.
Having been informed that Backwoods Fort Worth had indeed been reborn, I did my duty and went in to apologize at the rumors I spread of their demise. Of course, who could have known the store has reopened under new ownership IF IT WAS NEVER EVEN ANNOUNCED?
I found the new Backwoods digs (1013 Foch St, Fort Worth, TX 76107) to be a bit cozy, but I was encouraged by the move of the fly fishing area to near the front of the store, and much of that pricey clothing shifted to the back.
“The only stores that survived were those with fly fishing (departments) that were doing business, so that means something,” Stephen Woodcock said, last Saturday, April 1st. And that’s why the new management group decided to give fly fishing a more prominent role in the surviving Backwoods stores. Woodcock added that he was still a bit unsure as to who the new owners are, other than (possibly) a real estate group. NOTE – Rumors spreading that a group of fly fishers have purchased the stores appear to be false.
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