Somebody Show Me Your Fish

It’s time to throw down. We’re back in that calendrical time of year, a time when it could be cool, or it could be hot. Whatever it is, it’s not raining.

Our “go to” fishing holes are probably high and dry, and we are searching for the barrel of water holding all the surviving fish. It should be easy, right? Well, once the weather and water has cooled off enough to avoid stressing the fish we would catch, it’s time to catch a few survivors.

First, if you’re familiar with any of your neighborhood ponds here in Texas, I bet you’re having little to no luck standing on the shore, or paddling around on ponds that are horribly percent lower than during their temporary spring top capacities. Why? It seems like you could just drag a fly across the backs of these fish as they are packed, like sardines, into the deepest parts of incredibly shallow ponds.

So you try your best flies, and best techniques, and try them again and again, but although you know they’re there catching is proving to be extremely difficult. If you look around, the message boards and other venues that are the forums for fishing successes, you will find a dearth of fish porn – a complete downturn in the quantity and quality of fish that we typically see.

HERE’S THE DEAL

The summer Texas just went though is having effects on Texas fly fishing that will last through the rest of the year, and with the talking weatherheads saying La Nina is on us again, well into next year. Factor in what continuing water consumption by different entities downstream from inland Texas, and we’re headed straight for hard times for inland saltwater fishing – full speed ahead. Salinity, that fine balance between salt and fresh water, gradually tips toward salt with the speckled trout and redfish headed for hard times.

So, what we have to do is make a concerted effort to get to the salt before it all goes south. We have to get ready for the Oklahoma cold water action, and ply some of the places that tweak our interest in Texas. It looks like the hoopla over the Guadalupe (and so many other places) will have to wait until the flow out of Canyon Dam obliges.

There’s a long list of fly fishing experiences that won’t be happening because of our dependence on rain to make them happen. Draw a circle with the center being DFW, and the edge being saltwater, and run that around. It certainly reaches a lot of Oklahoma and East Texas locations that still have water – more than we have in North and Central Texas.

Here’s the short list of what / where fly fishing will be happening on Texas Fly Caster in the near future though –
– Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) somewhere
– Coastal first hand reporting – Texas Gulf Coast grab bag
– Last Hoorah for Amon G. Carter Lake – largemouth bass kayak fly fishing
– Beaver’s Bend – A fresh look after a long time away
– Blue River – Nasty weather means great fishing in the C-n-R area
– Grainger to check out the updated facilities and chain pickerel
– San Antonio redfishing in fresh water
If YOU want to go fishing at any of these places, let me know. If you fish any of these places in the next few weeks, SHOW ME your fish, and you know I’ll show you mine. Any other information is greatly appreciated as well.

Tags: fall fishing, pond fly fishing

Category: Science and Environmental, TECHNICAL, Technique