Good Monday Morning – Roll With It
flyfishing texas fly fishing #flyfishing
+Shannon Drawe
+Texas Fly Caster
Note – I accidentally left a crack in the website door last night, and some bad actors from Russia slipped in. I don’t know if that’s part of the slowdown this morning, but the site is moving like 40-weight in the Arctic Circle.
WELCOME TO MONDAY MORNING
Good morning and welcome to wherever you are this morning! I’m glad you are here. The sun came up again today, just like every day, but for the first time in almost a week North Texas actually got to see our life star rise. It’s a great feeling to see the sun … simple, underrated, but great.
As you recall from last week, those of you tuned in to the YouTube Channel, I am moving the video “Texas Fly Fishing Report” to Thursdays starting this week. That is in an effort to give the vast majority of us more fresh (as in less stale) information for our weekend fly fishing opportunities. It’s a whole lot less convenient than a Monday on this end, but it suddenly occurred to me that I am one of the only fly fishers I know that fishes mostly during the week while “everyone” else battles it out on weekends. And information that is good on Monday here in Texas, certainly isn’t as good by Friday for such a huge State.
It’s hard enough to get going at the beginning of the year if you are punching your own clock (self employed) but the bad weather has allowed me a bit of an extra slow windup before my first fast pitch of 2015. Loose ends abound, frayed like the end of a grass rope, but if you have the chance to look back – the updates here have hardly missed a beat.
My best look at freshwater fishing throughout the State of Texas, via the TPWD report, shows the typical winter patterns firmly in place for Texas. Slow to good are the watchwords, and that’s for conventional fishing. I haven’t perused the Facebook feed, mine or anyone else’s, for several days, but I have heard the action is shifting to Louisiana and bull reds which are about the best salt action this time of year.
Inland Texas fly fishing thoughts shift to viable options, like cooling lakes – Monticello/Welsh, coldwater releases below dams and river action. There’s also the odd opportunities that come this time of year; fly fishing for chain pickerel, or maybe a “glooping” carp and drum in LLELA.
You’ve already seen the reports on Oklahoma – the Blue River, and the stocking problems for that State we here in North Texas are so bloody close to geographically. This coming weekend is one where Texas literally floods the Oklahoma fly fishing scene in Beaver’s Bend, and to a lesser extent on the Blue River. We’re a bit too lazy to go all the way to the Illinois, but I will be the first to admit I’m looking at it on the map right now.
AIRSTREAM UPDATE
Unfortunately, since the Airstream sits exposed to all elements at A&P Vintage Trailer Works, my skin’s too thin to get out there and roll around in the mud underneath while sub-freezing wind chills stiffen my digits. So work there has ground to a halt.
I’m just looking for a stable weather window to go on a longer outing to Beaver’s Bend, or another small window to get to the Blue River again. It’ll be to the bike shop today so that I can get one bike tuned up for the Blue, and perhaps with a little conditioning for Beaver’s Bend – “them thar’s some hills,” I once heard of Beaver’s Bend. Of course, for the first time in recent history, photography work seems to be trying to get in the way – a pleasant January surprise.
GOPRO UPGRADE?
Speaking of surprises … it was time to upgrade our antique phones recently, and they came with sizable cash backs at a local electronics superstore. So much of a rebate that it has me looking into an upgrade on the GoPro to the Hero 4+. I’ll have a post later on what I am learning about the newer GoPro cameras. That picture has never been less clear. It’s a lot like how TFO keeps lines of fly rods on the market years after they’ve been outclassed by their new offerings.
THE LONG AND SHORT CAST
The long and short of it is that Oklahoma trout seem to be the best local opportunity right now. I’ll be researching the cooling lakes again this month, and a fish finder is going to be attached to that looking as well. We know the last foray to the was pretty much untenable in a kayak, but could be absolutely mecca on a boat. Keep your powder dry. Stay tuned.
TEXAS FLY CLUB MEETINGS
There are two meetings this week that I am aware of in Texas fly fishing clubs. If you need more information, feel free to visit the site I built for the Texas Council International Federation of Fly Fishers.
TUESDAY – Central Texas Fly Fishers in San Marcos at City Park 7pm
TUESDAY – Central Texas Flyrodders in Waco at the Waco Wetlands Center 7pm
Category: Adventure, Backcasting, Complimentary Reading, Culture on the Skids, East Texas, Equipment, Fishing Reports, Louisiana Report, North Texas, Oklahoma Report
