Memorial Day Morning Sidewalk
fly fishing texas weather #flyfishing saltwater texoma ray roberts gulf coast memorial day periscope fly fishing
Good morning Texas Fly Caster readers, and welcome to your Memorial Holiday edition of the Monday Morning Sidewalk.
It was an interesting weekend as I chased the flood waters around this part of Texas, and as you can see by the raw video clips I uploaded from the Lake Ray Roberts Dam, we are dealing with disasters on the biblical level now. Texas leads the National news this morning as Texans do what Texans do: Play games of “Hey Bubba Watch This,” and risk the lives of rescue personnel on saving their own dumb arses. I think the only way to get the attention of these idiots is to charge them for the cost of the rescue.
Otherwise, human disaster, loss and tragedy grips areas of Texas from down on the Blanco, all the way back here in North Texas, and up through Oklahoma.
If you don’t watch the video here, you won’t see an epic release of about 7800 CFS from the Lake Ray Roberts Dam, a volume of epic proportions that has stirred up catfish and buffalo, and is certainly dropping large volumes of bait and fish down below. I also tried using a new APP called periscope yesterday at the dam, and it worked quite well after the initial video was done (developers take note “after”). This APP, periscope, streams live video to watchers from your phone to anyone in the world who wants to watch. It apparently a Twitter app, and works really well once the ability to “name” and “describe” are enabled. Try it out. I’ll be going live on it while fly fishing later this week.
The image sent to me from Texoma (see the Instagram feed) shows you just what they’re dealing with there. The water is over the concrete spillway there, although just a thin layer was flowing in the video I saw. Who knows what today will bring? More rain for sure.
So the drought is broken, without rhyme or reason, and most of the spectators I interview (at these epic scenes of water release) say the same thing, “It’s raining now, but …” and trail off into pessimistic predictions like my own, “it always stops raining,” and , “it’s a break between droughts.” The truth is nobody really knows.
Heaven Knows
Heaven only knows we need a clear brake from this rain. We need the sun to show up, and dry us out. Regardless of the physical effects of these dark days, the mental grey-ness does take a toll on many. I skipped last week’s Texas Fly Fishing Report video because it was raining, and to tell you the truth – the report from the week before still goes. I think it’s safe to say all Texas Gulf Coast bays that are influenced by river flows are now dealing with huge loss of salinity that will effect fly fishing for many weeks. We will have to go all the way to Corpus Christi to get away from that – and I am headed there this weekend, rain or shine.
Making Lemonade
Amongst all this unsettled fly fishing weather, I did finally hear from someone in the Pilot Point, Texas, area a few weeks ago, who has a pond to rent to fly fishers. The pond took a bit of a hit in the last couple weeks, with flash floods blowing some fish out of it, but Mr. James Barron at 972-342-9806 is your contact for this pond, and I will be checking it out some time this week as time allows. I am always surprised at how few of these ponds are available for “lease” and am always looking for more of them.
On this Memorial Day, we remember all who have served in our Armed Forces, and who have made the ultimate sacrifice in our behalf. It is very likely that everyone reading has known or is related to these losses. My Grandpa’s best friend killed in WWII, a second cousin picked off by a sniper in Vietnam … as close as an empty bedroom in our home, or as distant as only known through a stone, we remember you.
Category: Backcasting, Complimentary Reading, Fishing Reports, Life Observed, Science and Environmental
