Monday Morning Sidewalk
Good Monday morning to all the readers arriving here through the wonders of little ones and zeroes that travel through the pipes we call the internet. I hope all of you are ready to go at a new week that promises to start off just like the fantastic weekend we just came through. It certainly is easy to rejoice, here in North Texas, over weather that is at the other extreme of February cold.
What a memorable weekend we just passed through … life, death, sun and wind, work and play. Sometimes life just seems to have a condensed sequence, you know, where a lot happens in a little time. Not that anyone should care, but this was one of those string of days around here.
FALSE SPRING
Maybe it sounds like a grumpy old guy talking in warnings about the weather, but for this part of Texas … it just can’t last. One thing about getting older is, for at least a time, you have this feeling of time being compressed. That means it’s actually easy to remember a March snowstorm, or the coining of new phrases like “cobblestone ice” when no other more intelligent name can be derived. I’ll just paraphrase from Yogi, “It a’int over ‘till it’s over.”
We certainly haven’t had enough warm weather to make a difference to the fish around here. The water’s still cold at about 52-degrees for Lake Ray Roberts, TX, and the sun does little good if we’re thinking about trout in Oklahoma. Maybe someday I will fly a drone over a location like the Blue River, or up the creek at Beaver’s Bend – just to show you how easy it is to see fish from raptor altitude on a sunny day. Any drone owners reading? Feel free to take that idea and fly with it!
About the only thing false springs trigger is fly fishers. This is when human instinct to come out of our caves and hunt, or in our case FISH, kicks in. The fossils are littered with a lot of dead cavemen bones – cavemen who came out before winter was really done.
Make sure that if you do venture onto the North Texas water, say by kayak – this is the time to wear a PFD no matter what.
If you are on, or headed to the salt; Let the good times roll. The sun will be your friend, and this weather pattern should be a boon to your coastal fly fishing this week. As long as the tides are cooperating, it should be a 5-Star run of days.
Patience.
Four weeks, maybe six, we’ll be looking at a real spring shot, and plans are taking all shapes. Of course the big question mark is home water Lake Ray Roberts and the conditions that continue to dog that lake.
MEANWHILE
Meanwhile, work continues on the Airstream – every good day now, every day that real work doesn’t intrude, every ongoing day that fish don’t intrude. There aren’t many of those left. We’re into the wiring phase of the rebuild, and of course that’s extremely important work. I am decent with electrical, but integrating and separating two 12-volt systems from 110, and running it logically for lights, accessories and lighting – that doesn’t exist yet – is an interesting assignment. And each original piece that is salvaged to use again needs a complete restoration integrated with updated capabilities – like LEDs replacing old bulbs.
WEEK AHEAD
Of course we are always burning that candle at both ends — doing the video reporting for viewers of the YouTube Channel, looking for new perspectives on Water Wednesday, and embarking on the employ of new technology in time for our spring pursuits.
The week ahead has yet to show its fishy side, but I’ll keep my eyes open, keep looking near and far. If you have any information, any fish stories, any thing you want to add to the cauldron called Texas Fly Caster – just feel free to send it in, and we’ll get it out to the masses.
Later today, I am running a video post on how to take care of Simms G3 Guide leather boots. Call it a Fly Fishing Tip, or suggestion? I was always fascinated at using leather for a boot designed to be underwater most of its useful life, but I think I found the natural solution to how to maintain that leather – so it can endure such a difficult life.
I will also be squeezing a lot of reporting on the music scene and beer scene in between the slices of thick fly fishing bread stories. Man can not live on fly fishing alone, can they?
MEETING OF THE FLY MINDS
There are a few club meetings sprinkled throughout Texas this week. These meetings are great opportunities to find folks who have the same affliction, and see how they are living with it.
- Tuesday – Central Texas Fly Fishers
- Tuesday – Central Texas Fly Rodders
- Thursday – Brazos Valley Fly Fishers
- Thursday – Laguna Madre Fly Fishers Corpus Christi
Of course there’s also the Texas Council IFFF website (a DentonDigital.com site) that should have a lot more information on these clubs, their locations and events.
NOTE – Somebody feel free to let me know how the Ed Rizzolo fly tying event turned out — I lost track of days, and that happened this past Saturday.
Category: Culture on the Skids
