Fly Fishing On The Monday Morning Sidewalk
texas fly fishing #flyfishing in texas
We continued to define Fly Fishing Culture on the Skids yesterday morning on Ray Roberts.
Welcome to the Monday Morning Sidewalk. If you’ve never been here for this Monday morning ritual, it’s where we take a look back at the weekend that was, and look forward to the week ahead. For a lot of you, you’re back in school, either as a participant or a deliverer of participants to their respective educational facilities. The name “Monday Morning Sidewalk” comes as a paraphrase of a famous Kris Kristofferson song, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” written in about 1968, and sung best by the writer himself. If you imagine that song while reading this post, wherever you are this Monday morning, then you will be in the right frame of mind the rest of your week.
PORT O’CONNOR FISHING STRONG
These days, I have to glean a lot of information from folks who are still posting away on Facebook, and sometimes as I sift through the chum, I actually find some good live bait. Over the weekend, I did see some bull reds being caught in that area, and jack crevalle as well. I believe the jacks were on bait, but the two bulls I saw sitting in Eric Kipling’s feed were definitely fly fed. As I was talking to JB yesterday, while standing on the casting platform of his East Cape Fury yesterday morning, he confirmed that “we’re starting to discover that bull reds are there all year long.”
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I never stop marveling that we are still “discovering” things about any fish we fly fish for, their seasons, their habits … their natures. I would have thought that, in this era of internet enlightenment, everything would be close to being known about a fish’s habits, locations and hungers, but apparently not. Heck, take a look at the story that ran last Friday on Danny Scarborough. There’s a sense of real discovery there, and there’s no one there doing what he’s doing either.
Speaking of Danny Scarborough, I have a story in at Lone Star Outdoor News that may not be seasonal (with hunting starting up now) and may end up being published here. It’s a story on targeting bowfin on fly rod – another one of those “discoveries” that a lot of Danny’s guide clients are anxious to give a go. That story may have to run here this week.
BACK TO PORT ARANSAS
And since we are focusing on the Lydia Ann Fly Master’s Tournament again this year, I am in the process of wrapping up the stories that will add more information that will help you “Know Before You Go” to Port Aransas for that tournament or any other time. Make sure to click on the Lydia Ann logo in the right column to get to the website.
THE LOCAL SCENE
The carp scene continues with fish in specific areas that are fishable only by skiff. They ate well yesterday, once we again switched to a fresh fly type, and while the sun wasn’t covered by clouds. We have done a lot to narrow down what types of fish are where, and are seeing lots of catfish, some buffalo and plenty of drum everywhere. We were in the far reaches yesterday morning, and completely alone to pursue larger fish in these skiff areas, while areas accessible to walk-waders (yes, we saw you) seem to be limited to smaller (2-5 pound) carp that are very uncooperative on the take. It certainly is exciting to have these large fish all to ourselves, and have them take like they’re supposed to! It has been a good year to narrow down what was happening where on the lake as well. It helps us to be able to write-off entire huge areas that were once very productive, but are carp deserts this year.
And even the old experts are learning new things from this year’s carp season. It certainly is longer than they had realized, with a “second season” of feeding (that’s gong on now), and the carp are showing specific behaviors and taste in flies as well. If the weather remains this stable (no biblical rains), I think we can expect the carp bite to tail off in mid-October. It’s a truly amazing year here! With the lake level so stable, it stabilizes everything related to it as well.
Thanks for reading this week’s Monday Morning Sidewalk! I hope you have a great week and arrive safely wherever you decide you must go in your shiny metal box. If you have anything to say, anything at all, please don’t hesitate. Of course we always appreciate information about fly fishing above all, and you still fuel this fire.
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