Headed for the Kingdom O’ Possum
possum kingdom fly fishing at 6 Bridge
I bet most loco fishers fantasize about big fish, records even, when they lay themselves down to sleep sometimes. Face it, visions of records dance like sugarplums through your head. There’s really almost nothing so blatantly borderline as the relentless pursuit of records.
It was a bit more than a year ago when I noticed the fact that Texas Parks And Wildlife had a “new” category of records called “catch and release”, and brought that to the attention of folks on a high traffic message board – Texas Fly Report. The folks that chimed in on the thread were equally amazed. There were records to be had by simply catching a fish, just catch a fish and you had a record for a particular body of water.
Fast forward to the end of 2008, and some wise guys have the idea of pursuing these records, most of them are still just waiting, on the books. Is it an honorable pursuit? Well, Lefty Kreh told a story the last time he was in town, and it’s repeated in his new book “My Life Was This Big”, about one of his sponsors calling him on the carpet for not registering records he was catching while conquering Florida. He knew the guy was footing the bill, so he got with the program and started jumping through all the hoops it takes to secure a record catch.
Believe me, there are hoops to jump through to register a record catch for the State of Texas, and if you are interested in an IGFA record you can multiply the hoops by a factor of about five. However, Texas does make it most easy to record “catch and release” records, but what I am finding are records that seem to be crossed up. Take Possum Kingdom, for instance, where they have a “fly rod” category of records, but no “catch and release” records. The fly rod records have weights, so that typically necessarily means killing the fish which is antithetical to most fly philosophers. The ease at which you can capture a “catch and release” record is amazing; “Take lots of good photographs … measure … photograph with measure … angler with fish … witness” and so on.
Personally, the idea of seeing one’s name by a record feeds the ego, and we all know my creed; EGO EATS BRAIN. So, let the games begin, and we’re off to Possum Kingdom. There is this record a common Carp at Grapevine … now that one has me sweating.
Category: Culture on the Skids, Fishing Reports, Life Observed, North Texas
And it was REAL hungry that day!
Ego eats brain??? yuck.