Monday Morning – Window’s Half Open or is it Half Shut?
texas tropical storm bill fly fishing dead zone gulf
Crappie is one species that I didn’t expect to be catching with regularity on fly, but nothing is regular anymore, is it?
Good morning once again on this Monday Morning Sidewalk! I bet most of you finally hit the water last weekend, and from what I saw around the social networking world, locals were spread from here to the Texas gulf coast- catching speckled trout, reds, carp, crappie, bass and sand bass. If I left any fish out, I apologize.
Small fish like this longear, are big fighters ounce-per-ounce, and you would be amazed by the beautiful depth of color in person! This one came my way yesterday in Plano, Texas.
Apparently, what we had was just a little crack in the window, and the window’s about to close again, surprisingly because of the imminent weather changes headed this way from the Yucatan Peninsula. The name is Bill, and it hardly looks organized out in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet the talking weather-heads are getting pretty excited about the route this one’s taking – very little deviation from straight into Texas between Corpus and the Sabine. Significant rain is in the forecast. I am becoming increasingly amazed by how much time we’ve had to dedicate to weather this year.
While there are many irons in the fire around here, the weather also plays a leading role in many of those projects. We have a new patio 5×25 feet laid in for the Airstream’s return home, something like getting the baby’s room ready for the return from the hospital. And the hunt continues for the right motor for the skiff. I am amazed by the cost of a boat motor, versus, say a lawnmower. All kidding aside, I think the decision’s been made by the use of simple logic, but we’ll see …
GULF DEAD ZONE
If you have been watching the fairly regular Texas Fly Fishing Report (the YouTube channel has those reports), then you know I have been talking about the influx of freshwater into the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas Coast. Well, scientists are warning now of a potential “dead zone” appearing in the Gulf — much like it did the last time we had a rain event like we’ve had in Texas this year. This dead zone pretty much exists off the Louisiana coast all the time because of the Mississippi River drainage, but when Texas rivers combine to create outflow as great as the Mississippi, that dead zone starts to stretch from Louisiana westward and down the Texas Gulf coast. Dead zones are offshore biological events Sometimes we just wonder aloud; what’s next?
So what is next? Well, the fly fishing opportunities are everywhere to be found – our rainy season presented opportunities on the way up, and the way down, and if we hit that cycle again with the weather being warmer? More opportunities may be found in more places, and we will get out there and find them!
MUSIC FOR THE FLY SOULS
On a more lyrical note, if you trust the judgement behind the keyboard – at least when it comes to music – be sure to reach out and procure a copy of the newest James McMurtry CD! It’s very good (a top ten pick this year), if you like fantastic songwriters, plus the allusions to fishing are all over the place. That certainly doesn’t necessarily make a great spin, but in this case it adds to the rewarding listening. James McMurtry, as you may recall, is the son of Larry, and can do in four minutes what it takes Larry 200 pages to do. This release is more acoustic than “recent” releases, and just adds focus to the lyrics over the guitar slinging. He can be seen playing the Continental Club in Austin quite frequently, and plays Dan’s Silver Leaf in Denton, Texas, on occasion.
A great example of deep green largemouth bass caught on fly. This one acted like it had never been caught, and was swimming among koi and huge grass carp in Plano, TX.
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Category: Backcasting, Culture on the Skids, Fish Kill, Fishing Reports
