Technique

Monday Afternoon Sidewalk

shannon | June 11, 2018 | 0 Comments

Good Monday afternoon! Welcome to the Sidewalk of life.

This is the day and place where any and all topics are fair game, but the fairest of all if fly fishing. If you are only here on Mondays, you may have missed the fact I got blown off the water last week, and also got sent home with my tail between – from Lake Texoma. So much rejection in a single week … makes me wonder … what the heck is the deal!

I always relish the excuses when out fly fishing with someone else, or even the excuses I make to myself when no one else is there to tell. It’s too hot, cold, early, late, windy, calm, clear, cloudy, wrong fly, wrong line … the list is as extravagant as needed to put my spin on missing the target completely with a shotgun.

Yes, we got to put eyes on some carp Thursday before being blown completely off the lake, BUT, we couldn’t get them interested. The VARIABLES were too great, and the actual number of fish too few – I was back on the trailer by 1-pm. The day before on Texoma? I had all kinds of proof positive that Texoma was in the FULL-ON position, including a small armada of boats sitting just off the riverbed … sitting and sitting … with a bunch of perfectly straight rods on board. I was (here comes the excuse) too late perhaps, as that armada was staked out when I got there just as the 7-am chime rang.

TEXOMA WAS so slow in fact, I decided to pound some rocks for smallmouth bass, but again (here comes the excuse) the water was pretty warm for that kind of action. Once I realized the clock had struck and I was a fat pumpkin, I headed for the park on the Oklahoma side, and low-and-behold there were hundreds and hundreds of buffalo, drum, common and grass carp (huge) up shallow rooting around, and scaring out in huge groups pushing huge wakes. Not a fly was eaten, I assume (here comes the excuse) because they were in some kind of spawn mode — at least that’s what all the play looked like. IF YOU want to go after them, contact me and I will give the exact coordinates for that location. Texoma is a big lake.

RAY ROBERTS was harder to believe. All I can honestly say is; where there was recently water, there is no more. It APPEARS THAT the lake is dropping quickly – due to heat evaporation or consumption. And the water that’s left? Boiling temperature can’t be far off. We had two storms that went right over the lake – early Wednesday and later Thursday, but really? Winds are a problem once again this week, but if I can get out early enough, I will do that OR hit the road for some small pond action somewhere.

I FEEL THE NEED, THE NEED FOR TUG! And I want to get that story on my new Axiom II TFO Fly Rod done and in the queue as well.

Thanks for reading. I am driving straight toward major changes in my schedule coming in July, changes you will appreciate as opportunities and avenues for information will be blown wide open. More on that news as the countdown begins on about the fifteenth of this month. Needless to say, life changing events forthcoming (once again). Let me predict: I’ll be bothering you more than ever!!

Friday Texas Fly Fishing Report

shannon | June 8, 2018 | 0 Comments

Weather a Big Variable This Week

Folks in Dallas are still picking up the pieces after a severe storm pelted the area with huge hail and damaging winds early Wednesday morning. I believe they estimated the damage at $400-million, with 25-thousand cars and 40-thousand homes taking the brunt of golf ball to baseball sized hail.

The strangeness doesn’t end there. Following my own advice, I skipped past the edge of that Wednesday storm that rained on Lake Ray Roberts, and went on to Texoma to try and find the striper action. All I found was an armada of boats, tightly packed, and from what I could tell – a lot of straight rods. And all my electronics showed was a vast underwater nothingness, from the dam outward. I was doing a submarine dodging zig-zag to try and locate fish wherever they were, but their hide-and-seek was better than me. Water temperatures were hovering around 80-degrees, so there wasn’t much that I could find along the rocky shores either. It was just plain slow. I did find a huge school of buffalo grazing on the Oklahoma side in a strange mode I have never seen before – shallow on the shore much like common carp do during spawn. In fact, they had every characteristic of spawning carp – especially the NOT EATING characteristic.

Thursday on Lake Ray Roberts, I wasn’t even allowed to take out my frustration on carp. All my searching on the west side only showed me that the lake has been dropping like a rock. And that is the only explanation I can come up with for the lack of carp – at least on the west side. The wind kicked up huge, so we were not even able to run to the east side, and by the end of Thursday? Another damaging storm cell made its way right down the middle of Denton, Texas, and on south to Dallas once again. Strange days indeed. Fortunately we had given up the ghost around 1-pm, so that serious weather was never a factor on the water. Otherwise, there would be a much different story to tell …

There’s no time for a YouTube video report today, and with all the construction noise around the house, it would be next to impossible to create the show – without major interruptions. So we will come back at you next week, with a full report, and maybe finally a chance to get the TFO Axiom II on the water and onto fish. That is a taller order than I ever expected!

FLY FISHING ACROSS TEXAS

From what I can glean, the saltwater picture is becoming more dispersed, and difficult since the heat kicked in with force along the coast. The main idea is now to know your tides and tidal movements. Fish the usual areas on the incoming, and hit the constrictions (guts and drainages) on the outgoing. Tides are running at night, so that’s your main problem now.

It seems like Falcon Lake is right on track with plenty of big fish being caught, and tons of sand bass as well. The other highlight is over in Southeast Texas (near Houston), and that is a lake I have heard a lot about for awhile – Somerville near Brenham, Texas. I have not heard anyone stop talking about that lake for several months now. It MUST BE on. Generally, you are looking at a summer pattern locking in on Texas lakes.

Have another great weekend! And we will see you bright and early Monday Morning on the Sidewalk of Fly Life.

Friday Fly Fishing Report Holy Carp! Results Bass World Results

shannon | May 25, 2018 | 0 Comments

Where to Fly Fish This Weekend in Texas

If you have to fish amigo, make it fly fishing. Otherwise, it’s a good idea to stay away from Texas lakes and other water bodies. I guess if you went deep sea fishing it would be the safest bet! That’s just how we roll here in Texas.

This video contains the tournament results for Holy Carp!, tournament results for the Bass World Championships in Lake Fork, a report from Danny Scarborough, my local report, and the scroll of fresh and saltwater fishing throughout Texas. I have a tip or two on what flies would most likely take big bass right now and what kind of ingredients go into tying flies for Texas jetty fly fishing.

I am running through this because I have to get to TFO in Dallas, and back before the traffic window slams shut on my scrawny little neck!

Oklahoma Report: Blue River A Frozen Mystery

shannon | January 5, 2018

Fish Jumping on the Blue River This Weekend

Conditions & Flies That Surprise – The Tequeely

For those of you looking for a crack in this weekend weather, it’s here. I do have some new information on the Blue River and Beaver’s Bend Oklahoma.

I’m a writer and not mathematician, but I am okay at addition and subtraction. It looks like to me Beaver’s Bend is getting about half the trout stockings

that the Blue River is getting as of the last official numbers on the last stocking date. I never thought I would see that! Maybe it’s always that way during certain times of the season, and I will leave it to you to correct me if this is normal. If stocked fish are your illness, then a short trip to the Blue River seems to be your cure.

AND I have heard that the Blue River fish are eating big flies! So throw your 16’s and 18’s if you like, but word out is that small fish imitations are the ticket to paradise. This means a #6 white Clouser and better yet have a look at the TeQueely Streamer fly for your solution to these fish.

NOW THE BAD NEWS

The flies, and the stocking information is yours to do with as you see fit. The bad news is – reports say the Blue River is virtually frozen over.

So there’s that to deal with.

HERE IS THE LATEST PRESS RELEASE from Barry Shrader

Blue River Fly Classic 2018

General Information

Date Of Event: March 3rd, 2018

Place: Blue River Public Fishing And Hunting Area
Time Of Event: 7:30 a.m. till 12:30 p.m.
Starting Point: Main Parking Lot Campground Area Blue River
Blind Pairings Will Be Prior To Start Of Event
Entry Fee: $35.00 Per Contestant

Purpose:

The purpose of the Blue River Fly Classic is two-fold. First, the mission of this event is create a day of greater fellowship among the fly fishing community on Blue River. Secondly, this event is designed as a fund raising event with the totality of monies raised by entries fees going directly to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife in support of the Catch and Release section at Blue River. Funds will be monitored by and through the Blue River Association.

Rules:

*A same pattern will only be used. NOTE: Contestants will be given one fly. An additional fly can be purchased (see below).

*All contestants will receive the same pattern and the pattern will remain a mystery until the start of the event. When a contestant loses the fly (or flies) then that contestant is out. If the contestant loses the fly (or flies) and wishes to continue fishing for the sake of fishing, then that contestant must turn their score card over to the person they are paired with. One additional fly can be purchased and used for this event for $10.00.

*Contestants will be allowed to retie their fly, but must notify their partner they are doing so.

*Dry flies as strike indicators will not be allowed.

*Scored fish are fish brought to hand. Each contestant must alert their partner when a fish is brought to hand.

*Each contestant is responsible for keeping their own score card.

*Each contestant should devise a way for measuring fish that are caught. Length of each fish scores additional points.

*This entire event is based on the honor system.

*Deadline for entering is February 10th 2018.

A copy of the general information, rules, and entry form will be available January 1st, 2018. To obtain an entry form contact [email protected] An entry form will be sent to you as an attachment. Print the entry form, fill it out, include payment and mail both in. You will receive a confirmation email once your entry is received.

Prizes:

Prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers. Prizes will be announced at a later date.

There will be a number of give-away prizes also in a random drawing.

Monday Morning Sidewalk – Wet After a Stormy Night

shannon | July 24, 2017 | 0 Comments

Texas tarpon talk and Texas Insider Fishing Report stoking the fires

Good Monday Morning! What a surprise that rain storm was for us here in the DFW area last night! Thunder, lightning and rain – the works. I was awake at about 4am, and checked the radar … that cell seemed to be feeding off the concrete heat as it dissipated like a magician in a puff of smoke. Strange days (and nights) indeed.

It was fun watching the TEXAS INSIDER FISHING REPORT on Fox Sports Southwest, and their segment on Texas tarpon. That’s a story I want to start working on this year, but their analysis puts them 3 miles offshore and dead center (now between the Galveston Ship Channel and SLP) off the beach. Houston, we (I) have a problem! Their history lesson matched my historic perspective on the modern Texas Tarpon population (dams are the problem that forever changed our Texas Tarpon population). Without those dams? I would never have left the Texas Gulf Coast from my childhood, and wouldn’t be sitting here writing this either.

I would love to go on and on about a fishy weekend, but you guys know I don’t fish on the weekend. But I am fishing today, and probably a couple more days this week! Based on the TEXAS INSIDER FISHING REPORT, I like the looks of PK lake and night fishing on Grapevine is calling my name … heck, night fishing anywhere is better than this heat! I’m looking for riders.

Have a great week folks. I appreciate all the great photos coming in from everyone — and you will see those on the InstaFishFeed – unless you say otherwise. There are so many coming in now, that I can’t actually run them all! I apologize for that, but I have to edit for quality and repetition. PLEASE take the best photo you can, and use a camera whenever possible!

Thanks for reading!