Gooey Weather Gives Way to Sunshine Redbuds Crane Flies

shannon | March 23, 2015

texas fly fishing ray roberts alligator weather lewisville creeks #flyfishing

It was sunny a week ago, and so it goes today. In between that Monday and this was sandwiched a soggy slog. We had a bit of the rain we need, even if it also brought fly fishing conditions we didn’t necessarily want. But we’re here, all in our places this fine morning, so welcome again to the Monday Morning Sidewalk.

I was talking to someone yesterday, who said Lewisville Lake “looked like it had gone up a foot” when they drove over on the bridge. That’s actually accurate in a week’s time, and in a month’s time that lake has gained two feet. That, my friends, is a lot of water back in that system, and just in time for wasteful spring lawn watering … perfect.

The extreme “progress” in the Denton, Texas, area, does lead to one obvious side-effect; when a City methodically paves over nature unchecked, that rainwater has nowhere to go but down to the newly constructed concrete drainages, and straight into local lakes (Denton drains into Lewisville Lake). If nothing else, even if it’s not beautiful, one thing Denton does now is drain.

The numbers for Lake Ray Roberts are equally good (up a little more than 2.3 feet in three months), and almost mirror the progress at Lewisville over the last month. However, the Ray Roberts water hardly comes from pavement, or those green chemical lawns. And we know what that means – not nearly the number of freak fish found in Lewisville Lake. I found the dam at Lake Ray Roberts to still be essentially shut when I was there over the weekend. That’s a good thing, if you were wondering.

These concentrated downpours do shut out opportunities to fly fish the feeder creeks, and the runoff has even discolored the zebra purified Lake Ray Roberts as well. The debris I found at the mouth of Hickory Creek (feeding Lake Lewisville) last week was incredible. Years of deadfall, trash and flotsam coming down and into the Lake. All this new particulate bodes very, very well for the carp population this spring, and their tendencies to come in shallow. This could be good. We certainly will have a better idea of just what zebra mussels can filter, and just how quickly they can do it.

The fly fishing week ahead promises to be eventful. I have a video on an alligator search at Lake Ray Roberts, one that I waited just long enough to actually FIND an alligator on Lake Ray Roberts in perfect condition – dead as a doornail. And we may be getting back to normal by Thursday’s “Texas Fly Fishing Report” if we can ever get these darn wood floors straightened out … the fumes of oil base top-coat are beginning to take a toll, don’t you think? Living out of my man-cave-fly-shop has definitely been leading to a lot of bone cracking every morning wakeup as well.

Nevertheless, the redbud trees are budding and the crane flies are everywhere now, and those are both signs of the time – the time to fly fish this part of Texas. And fly fish we will. Today is one sunny day that won’t get away. Are you in?