First Monday in October
“ … We must be more impressed by what we don’t know than by what we know, or think we know …” – Marty Baron from the book Collision of Power – How true is this for fly fishing and FLY FISHERMEN?
What a great way to start the new week in a new month that signifies the winding down of the year that was … one of the most interesting and fully loaded, loaded with huge ups and substantial downs in my fly fishing world.
From the rewarding time, starting one year ago (tomorrow), landing on location, first in Port Isabel, then on South Padre Island, Texas, bringing the fantastic (but not new) concept, that was at that time, a combination of retail fly shop and top-shelf coffee shop to the Lower Laguna Madre.
Six months working day-and-night, getting past the initial misstep that was Port Isabel, then getting into the fantastic location on the Island, the floor plans, the defining of markets and demographics, merchandising, website content, adhering to truth and accuracy, dealing with “island time,” and a host of obstacles internal and external, left virtually no time to fly fish the Lower Laguna Madre. And that’s why the seventh month was invented.
Several stories were stuffed into that last month of April 2023 on South Padre Island, before heading back here to North Texas to finish out the fall preparing my new “Fish Camp” for the road in 2024.
Yes, a mobile Fish Camp that just may up in your driveway – if you have a 30AMP I can glom onto for a little while! This Fish Camp is actually a decades long and winding labor of love interrupted years ago, by you guessed it, fly fishing. But now, as a matter of survival, the mobile has moved up the priority list – way up the list!
TEXAS WEATHER CHANGES
Along with October comes the change. Just like my Mom used to say, “We always get a cool front before your birthday,” and here in North Texas we get a front even a little earlier than down on the Borderlands. Miss you greatly Mom. Look for a little rain this week, as a fish trigger, and maybe a bump in lake levels which are starting to show some strains. We hope that rain will be enough to wash out some bugs, and make the creeks rise.
FALL FEEDS
Fish will be acting like they do in fall, eating and fattening up for the winter – where we have winters, and there’s always the best Texas Gulf Coast fly fishing month – October, that just started. Migration of the bulls on the coast, and the salt eating continues where winters never really come (except when I am there!).
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the Loco Airstreamer on YouTube, where you will see what’s taking so long for the mobile Fish Camp to hit the road! Feel free to think about asking if there is space for your products to be part of the future travels of the Airstream Fly Fishing / Loco Airstreamer road trip!
Category: Adventure, Airstream Fly Shop, Backcasting, Body-Mind-Soul, Fishing Reports, Fly Shops, Life Observed, North Texas, On The Road, Texas Gulf Coast, Texas Water Conservation
