Backcasting
Monday Morning and We Survived
Texas Fly Fishing and April Events in Texas
Good Monday Morning, and welcome to another Yo-Yo week of weather and fly fishing spring give-and-take. This weather … hailstorms, wind damage, sunny and cold. What next, pray tell?
I guess many of us residing at, or above, the I30 line got spoiled by two past years of mild winters and equally mild springs. What we have here is part of the new reality – unpredictability.
ON UNPREDICTABILITY
(aka. You Thought Trump was Bad? Try Texas in Springtime.)
These unpredictable days, coupled with a weekly window shortened by three days, mean chances will have to be taken to do the research we had in mind for other fly fishing locations – listed earlier in the year. We are just going to have to roll the dice, and try to keep the damage to a minimum.
AS PER Lake Ray Roberts, and fly fishing that fertile field? It was beautiful, and untouched by carp as of last week. The water is still cold, and if they are just offshore; they are well hidden by the wind CHURNED water. The flats are greening up nicely though. I am still searching for that snakehead I saw there a couple of years ago, but I bet that was a once-in-a-lifetime sighting.
PILING ON
April has its share of public events as well. Already halfway through the month, some of the best events are yet to come.
- Denton Arts & Jazz Festival (yes a true “festival”) – https://dentonjazzfest.com/
- Aubrey Pasture Pickin’s April 28 – https://www.facebook.com/Annual-Pasture-Pickin-Sale-435639026593545/
- Galveston Island Food & Wine Festival http://www.galvestonislandwinefestival.com/
- Main Street (Fort Worth) Arts Festival – http://www.mainstreetartsfest.org/
Somehow, I am hoping the folks at the other Texas fly fishing related festivuses have learned their lessons this year. Your events are TOO EARLY in the year – in this part of the United States of America. That goes for the Athens Fly Fishing Festivus as well. Mid-April should be a minimum, with May-June being the right time for this Country. Question is; will they ever learn?
Story Summary July 2017 Backcasting The Month Away
Here’s your list of what you missed
By popular request (one person actually makes it a “popular request”), I am beginning a Sunday Summary of the month’s stories – on the last Sunday of each and every bloody month. Just in case you are sick of TV, and already sick of the Dallas Cowboy hype (what happened to objective reporting newsheads?), feel free to tap these links to the months stories of fly and more.
THUNDERSTRUCK – Monday Morning Sidewalk July 3
TEXAS SKIFF – How to Use Ram Mounts for Push Poles on Skiff Platforms
IT’S WATCHER WEDNESDAY – Are You Tired of Watching Yet?
FRIDAY FLY FISHING REPORT – Where it all Comes From
MONDAY MORNING – Sidewalk Slam
WATCHER WEDNESDAY – What are You Watching?
FRIDAY TEXAS Fly Fishing Report July 14
MONDAY MORNING SIDEWALK – On The Pole
IFTD Wrap UP of Retail Winners
TEXOMA FLY FISHING REPORT – Texoma Striper Easy to Find NOW!
MONDAY MORNING SIDEWALK -Wet After a Night Rain
WEDNESDAY WATCHER – Log This Waypoint on Your Browser Today
Thunder Cracks Greeting Us Here This Monday Morning
Is it a sign? As soon as I powered up the computer thunder cracked nearby.
THUNDERSTRUCK
I wasn’t paying much attention to the weather this morning as I powered up, but the rains have just started here at my house – real rains. Is this an unusual summer, or what! And it looks like Texoma is getting a sizable storm this Monday morning as well.
BEST HOLIDAY OF MY YEAR
Well I am glad to welcome you to the best week in the history of my life, and that’s Fourth of July week. I have the deepest and the most heartfelt memories of my family gathering over so many years at 3401 Gulf Avenue on South Padre Island, Texas. It looks nothing like it used to look, unrecognizable actually, but in my mind’s eye? It’s still the place where I go back to, the place where the weight of my memories tip the scale. Family good, and family bad … a historical reference point that defines my family’s life. And that’s what every July 4 week means to me.
LAST WEEK
Last week I made it to Lake Bridgeport, Texas, and made good on my trip pretty quickly. I landed, measured and released a lake record Buffalo (on fly). At first, I really didn’t know what I was looking at, but we know what buffalo are about – a fight as good as any in freshwater.
This week? Well, the freshwater life, as opposed to the 4th. of July on South Padre salt, is damn crowded on Texas lakes! However, with my newly constricted calendar, I have no choice but to see how far I can get – today, tomorrow and the rest of the days up to Thursday this week. IT may be as simple as finding the carp on my home waters (for the next two week’s guiding trips), or another one of those runs to Texas lakes to work on a series of lakes I want to cover this year.
I really don’t know if the regular MMS readers, realize it or not, but I am certainly hitting physical and mental stride again and looking for a whole lot more – to report, to review and to discover about fly fishing in Texas. Nowadays, it is UP TO YOU more than ever to help me find the stories of interest, stories like the one now running in Drake Magazine on Danny Scarborough in Houston, Texas. I will keep bombing you with the “Drake Magazine” article until you beg for mercy (sorry but that’s my world now). You can make it easier for me to forget about this particular feather in the old ball-cap … by bringing new story ideas to my attention.
It’s actually hard for me to keep up with myself right now (part of hitting stride?), but I want to mention that there’s a new TEXAS SKIFF segment to my YouTube Channel. It will have information rolled into it from what I’m learning from my time rigging KoKo. And there is a lot of information you will recognize from the kayak days when it comes to rigging the technical poling skiff. All you have to do is tune in to the new segment I’ve added to the TexasFlyCaster YouTube Channel. (I wish there was a way to divide these out, but YouTube doesn’t work that way now.) I think you will see an innovation, or two, and maybe some answers to questions on how the whole thing works for me. There’s a brand new Texas Skiff video hitting the channel in the next 24-hours, so get familiar with YouTube and download the APP – Android and iPhone, stream it on your TV, or let me know your method of watching the second biggest innovation (internet being biggest) to hit fly fishing in this Century. Start watching and you will soon realize: That last statement is absolutely true.
Pat Yourself in the Back? It is Monday After ALL
Last week was an exceptional one here at Texas Fly Caster
Good morning fly friends! I hope you are happy with the weather this morning? You could ask for better, but you wouldn’t get it.
I am suffering from a case of tennis elbow, this time caused by the constant patting of my back by myself. Have you ever tried that? Some decent videos last week, two guide trips, and a Texas Fly Fishing Report that nailed, NAILED the fishing conditions last Friday … honestly, by Saturday I was thankful for the rain giving me a chance to sit still and recuperate.
By Sunday I was quite content to ride along with a friend on his tandem Hobie pedal drive, acting like I was pedaling occasionally. He wanted to “trawl” around for sand bass, but the schools I saw last week were elsewhere. Wow, Lake Ray Roberts was crowded too!
This is shaping up to be a defining week for our future, with things happening “one way or another,” “for better or worse,” in regard to a lot of things that have meandered along for this entire year. It will be nice to get past these boxes on the calendar, and on with some new opportunities.
Are you a Drake Magazine subscriber? I have been looking for the Summer 2017 issue on Denton’s only newsstand, but they don’t have it yet. I am always wondering which comes first, the digital issue, or the paper one? I know I’ve told you about the article I have coming out in this issue (at least once), but I am always anxious to see how the images are used … I guess it goes back to my newspaper days.
As this week begins to define one part of life, it is refreshing to know it also defines the time on the water – like today. The skiff is hitched, and I just need to throw the dart.Thanks for reading, and check back this week. This week will be as big a mystery to me as it is to you (believe it or not) at this very moment.
LOVE YOUR CHILDREN
Tomorrow is another somber day. Another of the contemporaries of, and friend of family members, died of a drug overdose and that service is tomorrow. Twenty-nine years old. That makes three young men we knew, in the last five years, dead at the hands of drugs. Tragedy, pure and simple, pays another visit.
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?
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