Hold on Tight We’re Almost There
fly fish texas fly fishing ankona boats #flyfishing #ankonaboats speaker report
If your sidewalk stretches south of Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas, then you don’t have to pay any attention to this — your spring has likely sprung already. Around here though, the trees are finally budding, the nights are warming up, the bugs are attacking outside light bulbs, and you can smell spring in the air. We’re almost there.
It has been a long, cold winter, a winter so many things didn’t survive. Couple the lack of rain (aka. drought) with the other harshness … all I can say is this one’s going to leave a mark.
TRINITY RIVER into RAY ROBERTS
I took a gander up to the northern reaches of Ray Roberts where the Trinity River comes in, and was amazed. The river is the only area where there’s water at Hwy. 3002 bridge. So if you haven’t seen where the river channel actually is, now’s your chance! Both sides are lined with heavy downed timber. It may just float away once the lake comes back, but this is a great opportunity to map the area for yourself.
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Fishing? I saw a lot of frazzled people up there, leaving empty handed and pretty quickly. There are two strong triggers for those legendary “runs” we’ve been waiting for – temperature and flow. A viable creek needs to flow, and the water temperature needs to hit 50-degrees.
What I saw was backflow from the lake back into the river channel, and the temperature still feels like it hasn’t hit 50 yet. Both of these variables are curable with … rain. If that doesn’t happen, we will be looking for instinct to kick in and give us a shot. Sand bassers – we’re almost there.
DALLAS WITH A WILD TWIST
I had a photo shoot Friday morning in Dallas, and was put up at a hotel near Downtown the night before. By the time I got to my 8th. floor room, all I could do was throw myself down and take a nap. I don’t know how much time lapsed, probably 20 minutes, and I got up to look at the view. There was some tiny drainage ditch almost straight down, and the sun was still high enough that the light was still reaching down into the water. No, it couldn’t be. There were clouds of mud running with the current, tails and splashes … carp in full spring frolic all along the little ditch. I hit the elevator, completely disgusted with the fact I had unloaded my rods for safety sake (in Big D).
The closer look confirmed spawning carp, a little feeding and a lot of spookiness. You can bet I will get back there this week to see if they are over their skittish behavior. They are so vulnerable it may be a tough line.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you are interested in a speaker for your club or group meeting! It finally occurred to me to actually “promote” myself in this regard, but I certainly enjoy talking about fly fishing in front of groups, and the monologue usually has some twists and turns that can be pretty free wheeling.
Tomorrow April 1, no fooling, I will be speaking at the Red River Fly Fishers monthly meeting in Sherman, Texas.
May 13 I will be speaking to the Central Texas Fly Rodders in Waco, Texas.
There’s probably no place I won’t go in behalf of spreading the fly fishing word, so hit the CONTACT page if interested.
BOGO a GOGO
Followers of the Monday Morning Sidewalk posts may have missed the BOGO announcement last week. So here is the video –
We have a ways to go, but we are well on the way.
NEWSLETTER
The early spring newsletter comes out tomorrow! If you want to get the newsletter, look to the left column of the site and sign up where you see the box “Inside Information on Fly Fishing Texas.” It’s the MailChimp box.
PS – The local Sunday night news (last night) featured a brush fire down in the Hickory Creek “delta” where it runs into Lewisville Lake at the 2499 bridge STORY – “Fish Fizzle…”. No surprise, another lake burns in the ongoing Texas drought. Many lake bottoms are tender boxes, so you can expect more fires like this one – where fire trucks can’t get in, and it’s hand-to-hand combat.
Category: Fishing Reports, North Texas
