First Monday Morning in August
WELCOME TO THE SIDEWALK!
So I have to admit, I have been sucked in to some kind of strange YouTube Channels whilst having all this camp time to help out with the recovery of my S.O. And quite honestly, some of this stuff is freaky strange conspiracy Epstein stuff, and then there are the cosmic, I’ll call them “cosmic,” channels that talk about all the earthquakes along the Ring of Fire, and underwater super volcanos … and this one guy who predicted a mega quake days before Kamchatka. This guy Stefan Burns is just normal enough looking to be strange, and he seems a bit … strange. He reaches out to the cosmos to tie solar blasts FROM THE SUN to earth movements, and spent significant time a few episodes ago – on the movement of our magnetic north on earth – rapidly toward Siberia. Then there’s the “gut health” people who have your solution for everything that makes a middle-age man self conscious. It just so happens to dovetail nicely into my Wholistic Fly Fisher© philosophy and ONE OF THESE VIDEOS has even changed my body in a matter of days … or … is it just my imagination running away with me? WHAT I FIND truly amazing? is the fact these guys are clearing six digit incomes just from their YouTube Channels! That’s enough to make me want a therapy video!
It’s entertainment. And while my orbit must remain close to home a little while longer, I have managed to eek out a couple of those “entertainment” videos on topics that are more diverse than fly fishing. Lately, I have been beefing up my photography channel with all kinds of content closely related to photography, gear and content creation for people who NEED help with content creation (Companies or YouTubers like me, but with a budget). The last video I uploaded to that channel f8.BeThere is about a factory “defect” on an expensive Nikon Z lens.
The other channel that hits at my distant past, and comes full circle, is the rebranded YouTube Channel: Denton Bicycles, a channel devoted to showing people how great a town Denton has become for people who ride bicycles all over this small City. Before fly fishing flattened my bike tires, I was riding anywhere from 80-120 miles a week, and back then the Denton and surrounding urban landscape was very different. One could get on and ride from in town, out to the lake or hinterlands any time of the day and week. Not so anymore. There’s the City riding, and then you have to transport out of town to get a gravel or mountain bike ride or my old favorite – isolated country road rides. There is a dual purpose to the “cycling thing” – Catch and Release on Bike! Remember, our bike trips up the Blue River Catch and Release were greatly enhanced by riding a bike up to the top of that area? A bike shaves about 1.5 hours off the commute, and adds a lot of wet line time to that trip. And you can bet I will be showing you my new and EXTREMELY AFFORDABLE (cheap) Blue River Bike in time for the first trout stocking. I purchased this bike a couple months ago to – a) ride around Denton, and, b) to start making those Blue River runs again (I had sold off my original B.R.O. Bike a couple years ago). HERE IS YOUR – Blue River Fly Fishing Playlist.
TYING THIS KNOT
What does any of this have to do with you who have arrived here expecting fish porn and fresh slime? The connection to OUR wholistic fly fishing future rolls forward on the two wheels of a bike! Nothing more, nothing less. I will be explaining why – in detail – in an upcoming post and video on the Texas Fly Caster YouTube Channel. The photography redesign may be a bit more subliminal to you. I have used this site, not as well as I could have, to feed my photographic creativity passions (now video too!) and raw information to my fly fishing friends here – from year ONE back in 2007. The technical aspects of fly fishing photography, if you look back at those old cameras I reviewed, is quaint and charming NOW THAT we are progressing forward at LIGHT SPEED! And I gave fair space to that progress and the gear all along these decades.
Rather than bore you with, “Hey! Look at me! I am so creative! I’m an ARTIST!” posts, photography and videos? I think I will stick with the subliminal insertion of what I love to do THE MOST, and that is bring creative visuals that do the one thing (or if really good, more than one thing) I was educated to do: Create images/(video) that tell a story that THE WORDS do not tell. That was my mandate in my photojournalistic career, and I hope to let it show through more and occasionally have some crossover to the f8.BeThere YouTube Channel. A quick and easy way you can show your “approval,” is to hit that link for the channel, go there and subscribe. REGARDLESS, I want to field any fly fishing photography/videography questions you have HERE, and am always overjoyed to get those questions!
END NOTES
We had a brief and intense storm roll through last night. We only had a quarter-inch of rain, but right NOW we will take every drop we can get! If you have not signed up for the HOTSPOTS 2025 notifications, you missed my blast last week – SAND BASS ON TOP at Lake Ray Roberts. I will be shortening this great DFW fly fishing opportunity to SBB – the Sand Bass Blitz. Will they be there this week? I may get a two day release to keep the boat lubed, and chase a few sand bass blitzes – IF they are there. My text chain to the HOTSPOTS25 will know first as usual. I am still truly surprised there are no local fly shops (yeah I know you are reading this-and thanks) that have this same LOCAL INFORMATION going out using my SMS method. But … it is a lot of real work.
Speaking of Fly Shops … I am uploading a new “section” of fly fishing and photographic gear to the Pops Fly Shop store right here on this website today! The Fly Fishing Co-Op will include used gear that encompasses everything I use to bring the fish to you – camera gear, fly rods, reels and even some fish mounts here on consignment! As more gear, heck maybe even bikes! become available, these items will be accurately described and priced and listed in PoPs online store.
