MONDAY MORNING TIPPING POINTS

Welcome to your Monday Morning Sidewalk!

The big question of the fall, and winter of 2020-21 is, “Well, where do we go from here?” I would like to think the summer is endless, and the carp will be around for twelve months for the first time ever … but we know none of that is true. 

It is warmer the further south we go, that we know. And you know that is enticing to me, but there are some good times to be had these days at, say, Denison Dam up on the Texas – Oklahoma border, There’s the never visited (post apocalyptic flood) Bend-Bow park. There’s also the extremely reliable Blue River – virtually as close as Denison Dam, and stocked with hapless trout starting in November. A wealth of … local opportunities without the “epic journey” syndrome is attractive on a certain level.

There are still so many places I wonder about though. What if there are carp proportionately as large as the bass population at, say, Falcon Lake? Or, what if you could get those huge Lake Fork carp, that frolic on top of vegetation, to bite? Or what about the bass bite coming in strong as the water cools off? I certainly see that happening NOW on Ray Roberts – a shallow bite that offers a lot of complications worth a few words …

VEGETATION CHOKING RAY ROBERTS’ COVES

This year, the habitat carp have normally inhabited has been overrun with vegetation as the summer progresses into fall 2020. From the outside in, as we come by skiff, there are acres and acres of this vegetation that have choked in the shorelines (first 20-feet are clear and that’s about it), and gives carp a “hidden highway” of movement. We can’t see if they are there, and can’t see where they are going. It’s a huge advantage for them. They do pop up at times to eat that vegetation off the top, and we see and HEAR that going on. But there’s just not a lot we can do with these variables.

WE CAN shift gears though (as hard as it may be for we old dogs). Not that I am a huge fan, but it could be fun to develop a consistent game plan for bass – on topwater – during these transitional times. I have certainly heard and seen that action in recent days, and we all know any topwater bite is one of the most exciting bites there is. I have asserted for the past few years, that Ray Roberts would have a surplus of bass because of the flooding, that gave their spawns and fry safe beds, set off years of healthy three, four and five-year-old bass we now have there. The thing is? I have not, until now, thought of the bass population as something that needed to be verified – by me. Maybe Ray Roberts is as hard as ever for chasing bass. It does have that reputation among the bass elite. What have you heard about Ray Roberts bass populations?

OFF THE CHARTS

I would be lying if I didn’t say; I want off the map come election day. The truth is, I believe all the talking head pundits are wrong, wasting their breath – worrying about a contested election, hanging Chads and Brads in Florida … this thing will be over election night, and The Don will be set free from the immunity of being President, and thrown to the proper authorities after inauguration day 2021. Why will it be over election night, National Enqiurer minds may ask? Like it or not, Joe will take states that once belonged to Republicans, probably even TEXAS*, and the electoral college will be too much to overcome by The Don – as he begs for the absentee and mail-in votes to be counted before he turns himself in to authorities. What a deal. Who wants to be close to population centers when this all goes down? 

Sorry for getting up on the soap box, but if you are an engaged (big picture) fly fisher, you recognize the damage this administration has done to our sport – environmental damage. Change is coming. I am crawling off the box now.

*TEXAS, my fly friends, is headed straight forward into being a BLUE STATE. That is the long and short of it – Texas will be a Democratic majority party leaning State, and we are very close to the tipping point in this demographic and scientific fact at the end of 2020. If you want to stop it? Sure close the borders – to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Only then will you have a chance of slowing the blue trend.

Tags: carp on the fly, election, fall bass patterns, fall fishing patterns, fall fly fishing, fall weather, lake ray roberts carp

Category: Body-Mind-Soul, Culture on the Skids, Life Observed, Science and Environmental