Monday Morning Sidewalk Salt is Dry
Good Monday Morning to you all! What a difference between this Monday and last. Ted Cruz is back from his whirlwind trip to Cancun … I don’t think it was a fishing trip? And the temperatures are going to hit the 70’s to get us started this week. Texas. What a State. Ted, you should’ve just stuck around a little longer.
PAVING THE WAY
Planning, on a fly fishing scale, has become absolutely imperative to our overall success in 2021, and here’s why:
- I am looking to expand our knowledge from far North Texas to Central Texas lakes, beginning in March 2021
- There is the threatened book / booklet / pamphlet on “Ray Roberts Carp on Fly” that I intend to self-publish at the end of the 2021 season
- There could well be another book in the offing
- That book would require tons of research and time AND an investment in a practical (read lightweight rather dry) river worthy vessel
- There’s a trip to South Florida to ride shotgun with a friend picking up his new Chittum Laguna Madre II squeezed in with the invitation to the Everglades that is standing for us
- We have yet to get the full measure of the destruction along the Texas Gulf Coast. Question is: Will we get there at all?
- The guided carp trips are lining up already, even before the famed sand bass runs get underway around here!
- The fly line mat business? Booming. New re-invention for home on the way this spring (totally unrelated to fly fishing, but saves time for spending on fly fishing!).
- Physical tuneup necessary for myself and upgrades needed on my Gen3 4-Runner as well.
- Camera gear? That’s a patchwork of systems, each with weaknesses and I HATE weaknesses in my camera gear. Time takes its toll.
- The Airstream – waits for other workers to complete steps before I fall back into that black hole of time …
CALENDAR PATTERNING TEXAS LAKES
First on this agenda is to seek your help, and help on www.texasfishingforum.com in creating a calendar based pattern – for which lakes (on the forthcoming list) to fly fish first this spring. Logic says, we start in the South and work our way to North Texas as the seasons progress from South to North. The other thing that I have succumbed to is chasing a few Texas lake records this year. Now you know I am designing for failure! Here is the first list of Texas Lakes – and if you know anything about these, feel free to chime in, and if you are local to them, feel free to twist my arm for a ride-along! If you want to chase records, be my guest!!!
If that doesn’t get your frozen plasma flowing again, I don’t know what will! I have always “guesstimated” about when these lakes “turn on” for fly fishers, and used TPWD reports to form the guesses. And I have never wet trailer on any of these lakes. Now I am reaching out – in every direction – for knowledge firmed by experiences and research. And your knowledge is always welcome here.
FLY FISHING LESSONS
For those of you interested in the Fly Fishing Lessons that I currently offer, let me raise your interest an extra little notch.
I now include a series of videos (private YouTube videos) in support of, or in preparation for your lessons with me. These educational fly fishing videos are short and sweet. They break down what I do in personal lessons – into bite-sized pieces that are easy to swallow one-at-a-time. There is a sequence to them, and I will be adding more videos for an initial total nearing one-dozen of these units (four more to go!) by the time spring gets sprung on us. I am confident this will, as I always am, this will lead to plenty of copy-cat offerings by other small organizations … but welcome to the bleeding edge of the Texas Fly Caster experience once again!
IN CONCLUSION
Gosh, talk of copy-cats has a bit of an “air” to it doesn’t it? Actually, I don’t talk as much as I show-and-tell over these last fourteen years. I certainly don’t want to become one of those cranky-old-man-get-off-my-lawn fly fishers. I actually want all you on my lawn, and casting and learning along, whatever it takes.
Help me pattern the lakes I mentioned earlier please! The last thing I like to do, is show up at a lake or water with zero chance of catching anything because of rotten timing. I will be putting a fresh thread in the Texas Fishing Forum sometime today under their “Freshwater Fishing Open Discussion” header, so that is a place you can go to read (I hope) how this research project goes over with the conventional crowd!
Please fill in the “Subscribe” box to be notified of new posts to this website! We’re in the doldrums right now, but if I get a chance to hit the road – down South, things will speed up as WE GO to meet the fish where they are. And if you’re into video, head on over to my YouTube Channel – Texas Fly Caster, and subscribe to that channel. It’s mostly dormant at the moment, but I am itching to start recording again. SEND ME YOUR TOPICS OF INTEREST TODAY!
Category: Adventure, Body-Mind-Soul, Central Texas, Destination Fly Fishing, Fishing Reports, Life Observed, On The Road, Photography, Saltwater Fly Fishing Texas, Science and Environmental, TECHNICAL, Technique
