Science and Environmental
Water Wednesday – Rainy Season Yet to Come to Texas
Substantial Rain Precedes Texas Rainy Season Huge Impact on Warm-water Fly Fishing Season
The rains are finally letting up here, and I am taking a lunch break to sit down and search for that drought map. We’re not even in the rainy season yet, and lakes in the TPWD “Prairies & Lakes Region” are either full or filling nicely. We all know what these rains mean to our warm-water fly fishing – Boom or Bust. I heard a conventional fisherman complain about dropping water confusing fish, “They don’t like it,” and I believe that to be true whether it’s bucket mouths or carp. An upward surge is fantastic, but the way they drain lakes so abruptly? Heck, it even confuses me!
DON’T FORGET
Don’t forget the CCA Fort Worth Crawfish Boil tonight! Here is the flier on that event – Crawfish Boil CCA Fort Worth. Be there!
SUBSCRIBE!
Be sure to subscribe to my premium YouTube Channel soon! I have a detailed ariel map of a local lake that is small and loaded with big bass. It’s public, and the only way you can get these fish is on kayak. I am going to lay out the structure that makes it a killer location. It is the number one place I have caught the most big bass in the shortest time (a single outing) – ON FLY. There are double-digit bass, and a strange assortment of aquarium fish in the pond as well.
Water Wednesday – Port Lavaca Texas
TPWD Report Lavaca Bay Texas Alcoa Aluminum History
FROM TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT NEWS RELEASE
“Achieving conservation goals requires effort by all of us, from individuals to government agencies.
At times, combined forces are called for, as in the mercury clean-up of Lavaca Bay, seen in this video. The ongoing effort to keep the Gulf stocked with game fish relies on strong partnerships, too. It also took a group effort to bring about Gulf restoration to compensate for effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; see the project tracker for updates.
Individual anglers like you also play an important part. Your license fees support conservation, as does your compliance with regulations. Your vigilance is also necessary. If you see a fish or wildlife kill or suspect a pollution event, immediately report the location by calling (512) 389-4848 or (281) 842-8100, 24 hours a day.”
Coal Burns Out in Texas Water Wednesday
Dominoes Begin To Fall In Texas
It may be a brand new day for the Texas environment, and we actually lived to see it happen. Taking three of Texas’ coal powered electricity generating plants offline means cleaner skies for Texas, less fallout in our water and healthier fish.
I have quietly railed against coal for several years now, and do believe that one of the great (maybe history will say the only great) things we will be left with from Obama’s years is – HIS positive impact on the environment, on our environment.
The closing of these plants will cost jobs, just as the horse stables and buggy whip makers lost their jobs with the coming of the horseless carriage. Families will be effected by this, and we cannot underestimate their insecurity and instability in this era of endemic underemployment, insanely low wages and people’s seeming inability to relocate to where jobs really are these days.
However, we rejoice at the idea of cleaner land, water and air – brought about by the huge growth in Texas wind power and natural gas. Texas is number one in the Nation when it comes to wind power, and we got there pretty darn quickly. Now, wind moves up in the percentage of power it supplies, and natural gas is the king of all power supplied in Texas (Yes, T. Boone, there is a Santa Claus).
The plants that are closing are:
- Monticello
- Big Brown
- Sandow
Luminant still has a couple more plants open, and they are:
- Oak Grove
- Martin Lake
Closing the above three plants will cut 10-percent of Texas power plant’s carbon dioxide emissions, which amounts to 26-million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Coal has been on a downward trend since 2010 – more than half of the US’s coal powered plants have announced their “retirements” in this decade. In case you’re wondering. That’s a GOOD THING. Let us all just hope that President Trump doesn’t do anything else stupid – to prop up coal power, and just leaves coal as another of his empty promises, this one best left empty. Continue Reading
Monday Morning Sidewalk – Back To The Path
Monday Morning Fly Fishing Sidewalk Harvey Talk
What a Monday! I know you’ll be happier wherever you are than meeting with accountants and lawyers, right? Monday, it seems, can be a day for medicine of all kinds. Nevertheless, I hope you all had a great weekend, and don’t pin your happiness on the Dallas Cowboys who you should expect to disappoint you by now (unlike fly fishing in every way).
Last week was nearly a thousand-miler, and I touched on the scene at Rockport – Port Aransas, but then got pulled away for the weekend job. The burden of the scene down there on the Texas Gulf Coast weighs heavy, and I am still trying to figure out what to do, more specifically WHAT I CAN DO about it. I am pretty sure my greatest skills for contributing to their recovery are not a chainsaw (have one), or a hammer (have many) and shovel (have too many).
I am looking to employ what I call the “skills” I have here – story-telling through photography and writing – on a larger scale, to a broader audience … somehow. I want to make a public appeal to you club members who are reading this: I would like to ask for a few minutes of your next meetings to show some photographs from Rockport, tell their story as it begins, and present you with a snapshot of the problems, and inspire you to respond to the Hurricane Harvey disaster in your own unique ways that go beyond the usual giving you do to broader fundraisers for cancer and national efforts. This is a Texas disaster that needs Texans to respond with pinpoint efforts.
Cutting this morning short, and off to those meetings. I will dribble out some more about last week soon – and go big on the discussion boards to focus more eyes on the Hurricane Harvey effort — within the next day or two.
Monday Morning in Midst of Harvey
Hurricane Harvey Still Dealing Devastation this Monday Morning
Monday Morning With Harvey
I know we are probably heavily dosed with the Hurricane Harvey coverage by now, but damn, this is a bad deal. Some of my family is in the “100-year” flood plane and some in the 500, but how in the heck does a region get away with even calling those areas that – when they are constantly susceptible to hurricanes?
While Houston gets most of the media (good hotels, restaurants and huge population), my favorite fly places and fly people are further south – at the EPICENTER of where Harvey made landfall. You will remember many a word written about Rockport, and Port Aransas, Texas. We’ve spent a lot of time there through the years, and caught plenty of fish there as well. It’s where normal people do normal things and have wonderfully normal and uncomplicated lives – until now.
Now? Who knows what we’re going to get the next trip we take to our favorite places. I clearly remember kayak fishing on the backside of Galveston after Ike, and seeing places – houses, boat houses – still falling into the water many months after that hurricane. And then there’s the flotsam that comes with these hurricanes. It will be all over the bay, the surf, the beaches and it will last for years.
TEXT YOUR MOM!
The power of group text messaging in a disaster is real. I am able to keep up with my Houston clan right now, and they keep up with each other as well … very handy during Harvey. Especially since my family is scattered from Houston to Harlingen during this event, and Grandma was hospitalized late last week in Harlingen, Texas. The Valley seems to have gotten off the hook this round, and that means it is about the only place that can take the September-October onslaught of fishing folks that hit the redfish in peak season. You know the Borderland is where my mind is wandering to … but hurricane season “ain’t over until it’s over” as I am fond of quoting.
PULL!
I have never been on, or around a shooting range that compares to the Elm Fork kdkdkd that was host to the Reel Recovery fund raiser last Saturday. I have a perfect record when it comes to skeet shooting – I broke them all, every one hit the ground – 0 for 0. I missed every one, and never ever went back for a second helping. I could blame my 20-gauge, but may be a lie. I used to pluck dove, out of the air out my back door as a kid, but I have fallen away from the bird hunting for now.
What a great bunch of people at the Reel Recovery event, all with their hearts and shots in the right place. Most of the participants were thanking me for taking their picture. Little did they know I was grateful for what they were doing for guys like me. The money raised from this event will help fund the future Reel Recovery participants (as I was last year). My appreciation also reaches to the people who took their valuable time to provide support for the event. For me, it was a reunion of sorts, but also gave me a priceless opportunity to meet new people who were cancer beaters and hardcore fly fishers. I am hoping my give-back, my photography from this event, helps spread the good word about Reel Recovery. I certainly enjoyed the challenge!
Prayers and thoughts reach east and south this week, as our fellow Texans deal with all that Harvey has dealt and continues to deal in coming days. If you have any information about recovery efforts, fund raisers, organizations that deal with the aftermath – PLEASE COMMENT OR CONTACT ME with that information now.
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