In The Woodlands and That Much Closer to Saltwater Fly Fishing
I am already drowsy, and I haven’t even had turkey yet! That’s what you get when you pull up stakes, load ‘em up and move ‘um out to THE woodlands before sunup. I almost went for the full nap, before I remembered what I forgot to report last week.
I had talked about going out to fish Texoma and the Buck Creek launch area on way North Ray Roberts. I managed to fish a long day at Texoma in pretty cold conditions, starting with the Marina and working my way around a couple of points, but nothing came of that, and I finished the day at the public boat launch by the dam. Nothing came of that either. Just like I said when I started the site, I’ll let you know the bad days along with the good. I wasn’t skunked, but it was a bad day. About the only thing I went away thinking about is the huge carp and buffalo that were roaming the rocky shores nearer the dam.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, I spent about four hours fishing west of the Buck Creek launch, and about three miles to the west of the trestle. Not a creature was stirring, and I couldn’t stir a single one to action.
Those two days were enough to convince me to hang up the big lake fishing for the winter doldrums, and think more about true cold water opportunities, and the saltwater opportunities that abound in Texas – every month of the year.
ON TO FLOUNDER
Salt really is easy enough to get to, if it’s in your blood. I will do all kinds of things in the name of a little salt – work late, get up early, not eat and forget to sleep.
Under the cover of Thanksgiving in The Woodlands, I have pulled off a couple of successful flounder fishing days right around, or on Black Friday. The overall plan going into this Black Friday Flounder Fly Fishing Day is to not to reinvent the wheel. And that starts with the fly.
Neapolitan Clouser and Fish Skull fly for Black Friday Flounder fishing in Galveston.
Lefty Kreh once asked a softball question to a group assembled in the name of better casting, “Where does the successful cast start?” The easy answer came promptly, “The fly.” It’s not an observation that requires a lot of thought, but with a little paraphrasing, I thought I could get some more mileage from Lefty’s wisdom.
My question to you is, “Where does successful fly fishing start?” Again, your educated answer is the same, “The fly.” By chance, I found my successful flounder fly to be the “neapolitan” (Nea) Clouser with a stainless steel hook and brass eyes. Brass and stainless are necessary to prevent rusting, and the gold and/or brass color is a saltwater killer. I tie these flies in a variety of eye weights so that we can get down to the correct depth these bottom dwellers lie. I use Mustaad C70SD hooks in twos and fours.
Box full of flounder flies. I hope we need every last one of them!
My past impression of what’s actually going on, the way I visualize it down there in the darkness, is that these flies, suspended from fluorocarbon leaders, are dragging bottom and basically causing a reaction strike much like any ambushing fish thrives on. I will bring another short post on how we fish these Clousers, and continue working quickly up the rod to encompass everything else that goes into floundering on fly. Below are the flies I have been spending evenings and morning coffees making over the past few weeks. Not a lot of variety, as I decided to put all my eggs in one basket. Of course, I have other colors, but not in nearly the quantity of the Nea Clousers.
NOTE – If weather plays any role in this, it’s an incredibly warm Thanksgiving with only a possibility of a break on Black Friday. You probably already know that I am also a believer in the solunar charts, so I will also see if I can find a way to get a copy of the weekend – through next week’s charts for you to see. It looks like some kind of crazy experiment on paper until you get used to how it works, and what it’s telling you.
Category: Culture on the Skids, Destination Fly Fishing, Equipment, Fishing Reports, Fly Tying, Gulf Coast Report
Hope you have some small shrimp flies for the reds. They’ve been keying in on the small shrimp leaving the marsh.