Guides
Keeping it Coming – New Carp Prospecting Video Plus Texas Fly Report
Carp guide prospecting and Texas Fly Fishing Report Update tropical storm Cindy
GIFTS KEEP ON GIVING
The plate was full this week, and with the call to repair a local fly fishing club’s website (down for several days now), my plot only thickens. AND, that’s the way I like it!
I am also getting a pretty good feed of your photographs for the Texas Fly Caster Instagram Feed – running behind, but thank you friends and readers for that! New news-tips are coming in as well, more like “you should check this out” tips really — requiring more legwork, more boat-work and more typing on these keys. Thank Goodness (that’s what I should call my wife, goodness), this half broke-in laptop is now paid off! And just in time to get a check from YouTube for all those ads you watch (so I guess you will now stop watching!).
We have passed the first peak of the carp season, and are moving steadily along to the next one which will be helped along by the rains coming over the next 24-hours.
So this video is a conglomeration of some footage from prospecting for carp in preparation for the two guide trips I did this past week, and at the end is the scroll with commentary, on the Texas Fishing Reports provided by Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. I am beginning to wonder about their accuracy based on years of reading, and this week’s UNMENTIONED tropical storm.
Who can blame the folks who assemble those reports really? (It’s the same folks that power the once famous (now dying) www.texasfishingforum.com) The bid for that job, of providing the reports for Texas fishermen, goes to? THE LOWEST BIDDER. The State can make exceptions (Yes, I know that for those of you wonks reading this) to the “Lowest Bidder” for bids, but rarely does.
The thing about Whack-A-Mole sand bass is … at least you don’t get a soggy tush, and you get any kind of bite you want – deep, mid and topwater are all contenders in this game – a game a lot like horseshoes and hand grenades.
Not only did we get on some carp this week, the sand bass are appearing on the lake – on top, and that means a great game of WHACK-A-MOLE for anyone interested — yes I can take you out for that exercise, and you can keep all the legal fish you catch. (No, I don’t clean them.)The sheer numbers, many of you are into that, put other locations to SHAME again this year. I have deals starting the first day of summer, and they’re called SUNDOWNERS – for those fishing, or fly fishing to eat (as I do).
Thanks for reading. I am guessing there’s enough red meat here for those of you who read, and are not on your family “VACA” right now.
If you’re in town, and ready to take the carp ride of your life, you know where to find me, right?
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!)
Monday Morning Sidewalk Looking Back at Sunday and Beyond
This YouTube fly fishing video reminded me of the second video I ever uploaded to YouTube way back in 2008.
SOGGY BOTTOM BOYS
Good morning! It’s another Monday morning sidewalk, and I am dragging! I forgot just what a workout it was to walk-and-wade the flats, but was reminded – by the windy walk we took yesterday on Lake Ray Roberts. The skiff would’ve been futile on a day with winds that strong, so the only way for my guru to get a much needed carp fix was to go for a fish walk.
It was windy, about 20-miles-per-hour sustained, and the south wind was pushing clouds overhead, which “turned the lights on-and-off” in a matter of seconds as we sight casted for carp.
There were carp aplenty, but they were well protected by the stirred waters, the intermittent clouds and heightened senses. We had plenty of opportunities, and finally (I think as the water hit the right temp) scored a few fish.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The big question of course; is this the weather we will have tomorrow, or Friday? The patterns seem to be less drastic, but it also seems like the talking weatherheads are still hedging their bets a bit. If this wind drops, conditions improve drastically. It may be time to seek a creek, or river!
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you know, and what you want to know. No matter what, travel safely to-and-from wherever you go in the Messtroplex these days. It’s getting a lot better on the North Texas highways, but distracted drivers can still write your name in stone … you’ll never see it coming.
Weekend Of Thought Gathering Perhaps
Which is Worse
I am still deciding which is worse; blunt force trauma to the head, or 35 rounds of radiation to the head-and-neck. But since I never suffered blunt force head trauma, that I remember, I guess I will have to go with radiation.
Needless to say, the weather has smashed an otherwise fabulous weekend to smithereens – not good enough, not bad enough to make me challenge or retreat … just enough to stop outdoor life, and send me to the sound room where I am spinning the new Roger Waters while contemplating.
Speaking of guides, and stories, photography and such …
What do we say of the new cover of local magazine “D” (as in Dallas)? Rob Woodruff, Orvis Endorsed Guide (lest we forget to mention) graces the cover this month! Is that amazing, or what? Rob has obviously worked very hard to get where he is, and this is about as close* to the pinnacle of free advertising that any Texas (spelled Oklahoma) guide could ever hope for – in an entire career. Since Rob has apparently made lemonade out of the lemon that became of Beaver’s Bend after the floods, this marketing feat is even more impressive to little old me. I’d sure like someone to tell me my name rolled off his lips – even once – much less the 231 times he’s been mentioned here over the years.
For those readers (and haters at the extreme fringe of readers) who think this writer is about his own journey? I only wish you were right. Because if you were right, I would have written about myself in the Summer edition of Drake Magazine. Instead, you will find an article on Danny Scarborough** in the magazines “urban fly fishing” department for the, yet to be released, Summer of 2017. I certainly enjoy working with Danny to expose what he’s doing in Houston to a larger audience, a MUCH larger audience. What will it do for me?
I am hopeful that with a little luck and divine intervention, the new article will finally attest to the fact I am about writing about and photographing OTHER fly fishers and guides for publications – more than myself. And perhaps, just perhaps a few guides and readers (anywhere and everywhere) will get the idea (finally) that maybe what they do is worthy of print and photography. Stories need to come to me now, and in volume …
And believe it or not, my writing is not limited to knowledge of the subjects you find here! Test me if you like, about anything but math of course. For example, if you pick up the latest issue of Lone Star Outdoor News, you will find a story on artist Mike Quinn out of Santa Fe, Texas. So besides all the other subjects I write about, add art and history to the list (yeah, the art minor and the economic history minor may help a little bit).
***So who really hits the pinnacle of free press for Texas fly fishing guides this month / this first half of the Texas year? You tell me. I would love to hear from you. And if you know of other publications I should be begging at the door of, let me know about that too – for goodness sake!
Thanks for reading. Stay dry. Have a great first weekend in June, and maybe I will have something interesting to say by Monday Morning! Shine on you crazy diamonds!
Texas Fly Fishing Report for Memorial Day Weekend 2017
Welcome to YOUR fly fishing report for Texas saltwater and Texas freshwater.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me — which is a no-brainer. The wind is making things miserable here in North Texas, and days that would be perfect are being blown away right now. Combine that with an extreme temperature swing and holiday weekend? All I can say is, make a trip to the beer and meat stores, stock up and lay low, way way low.
Thanks for watching. Take care if you do get out there, and send me your fish photos if you are brave enough to hit it this weekend.
#flyfishing #texasflyfishing
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