Monday Morning Windup
Good Monday Morning along the sidewalk. I don’t know about you, but I am on a slow drag today. This is a full week coming along, and has a distinct punch at the end – our annual Leslie’s Holiday Art Show is back in swing after taking a year off for the virus. We have already felt the pent up demand for original artists and creators – small shows earlier this fall blew up big, and impacted artist’s inventories in pleasantly surprising ways. That show is next Saturday and Sunday at Armadillo Ale Works in Denton, Texas.
BLACK FRIDAY
Black Friday, I rode along with a friend who had never been to the Blue River. It looks TO ME like the fly fishing crowds that once dispersed along the Lower Mountain Fork at Beaver’s Bend, are now redirecting themselves to the Blue River. However, it was Black Friday, so I will be anxious to see how it is there on a normal weekday. Notice, I am not going on and on about the synthetic fish? Perhaps the catch-and-release area was better (certainly a lot of cars in that lot), but I saw only typical small stockers in the catch and kill area. They were surrounded like settlers with their wagons in a circle, and the incoming arrows were tearing them to pieces. Murder by numbers. We took a look at more parking lots along 7 as well – lots that I don’t think I have seen or stopped at in the past. For future reference: Interesting.
LEAKY WADERS
How long do waders last? I have two pair of “older” SIMMS waders, how much “older” I have no idea, but both designs are no longer made, and I think I know why. These are the Simms waders that have the fold over thick neoprene (3mm) gravel guards. I suspected they leaked from the start, as I wrote off tiny amounts of moisture as, “sweaty feet,” but my waist-highs submerged to the crotch (adding pressure) began to let water pouring in last Friday. Just another one of those hassles we get to go through this time of year in Texas. For what top shelf waders cost? It looks like that design flaw – leaks right at the bootie-gravel guard-wader seam – has been addressed over the intervening years. So there go my waist highs – my daily drivers when I am doing some stocker chasing in Oklahoma, or running the skiff in winter. Next, my regular waders are the same generation, and have the same flaw. You can guess they will need replacing soon as well.
UP AND RUNNING BUT WHERE TO?
On the bright side, even if it’s a little shady, the Toyota is up and running again. The new-used transmission lets me know that old one had been about to go for a long, long time. It feels like rolling on butter now, quiet and smooth. Strangely though, I have gotten used to not going places on a whim. It was also a hard look into what old folks face when their “keys are taken away.” The amount of dependence it causes is amazing.
Thanks for reading, and don’t be too surprised to see some experimental changes happening to this website over the next few weeks – leading into next year. My goal during these changes; is to keep Texas Fly Caster recognizable and all that you look for to be findable with ease.
Category: Blue River, Body-Mind-Soul, Clothing, Fishing Reports, Oklahoma Report
