Tag: monday morning sidewalk
Monday Morning Sidewalk – Time to Take a Break
Good Monday Morning all! I will be giving the keys a break this morning in interest of self and fish! Have a great Monday walking along that usual sidewalk, and tune in later this week, or take a look back at last Friday’s Texas Fly Fishing Report for reports from Danny Scarborough in Houston, Captain Ken Jones and Captain Will Townsend in the Corpus – to – Rockport area. They were kind enough to send in photos, and there’s a monster speck among them!
Monday Morning Sidewalk – Big Changes in the Local Fly Force
Woodruffs Blue Damsel Lodge Hollensed All Over the Globe
We have ourselves a THREE F day to start the week that leads us from April into the promised land of May this year. Fly Fishing Frustration rules the day, and according to the weatherman – most of the week ahead in North Texas. What else is new? If you watched last Friday’s Texas Fly Fishing Report, then you know I told it like it is when it comes to April 2018. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t chamber of commerce either. I can’t wait for April to be OVER! PS – I will leave the simulcast on FakeBook the rest of today at Facebook Texas Fly Caster.
Rob & Jenny Woodruff Missoula Montana Bound
Speaking of chamber of commerce … I guess the power fly duo – Mr. & Mrs. Woodruff – are headed toward greener pastures than those of Beaver’s Bend, Oklahoma! Reports from BendBow, would have you would think they were catching big honey browns two at a time all winter long, but word is they are officially timesharing between BendBow and running a fly fishing lodge in Montana. The move makes perfect sense on every level.
They’ll be the new lodge managers at Blue Damsel on Rock Creek, not far from Missoula. There won’t be any more guiding for bass in East Texas according to Woodruff, BUT they will be in Oklahoma from November to February, then hitching up the wagons and heading for Missoula for March – October season. If you are a trout lover, this sounds like a dream come true. Rob’s experience with trout, some very difficult trout and conditions, instantly make him (and her of course) into a real force where fish and water flow freely – in my humble opinion. Add his entomological knowledge? I can’t wait to see the reports!
Flywater Angling Steve Hollensed
So, I would guess that the water that the Woodruffs leave behind is water that our other regional Orvis Guide Workforce – Steve Hollensed – picks up full-time. Steve, as you will recall, also has the fly striper business on Texoma. However, if you take a look at his website; it looks a lot like he’s heading for fishier pastures as well — fly fishing in Argentina, fly fishing in British Columbia and the well worn fly fishing from El Pescador Lodge in Belize. Somebody’s got to pick up that East Texas bass slack, don’t you think?
I will have another of the subscriber only video insiders coming out this week. I don’t even know what it will contain, but I know you are itching for some GOOD information, and I’m here to scratch.
END NOTE – If you know any of these three guides, Steve / Jenny / Rob, we would love to hear more about your experiences with them over the years. Feel free to COMMENT, if you, ANY OF you, would like to do so. Don’t worry, this isn’t Facebook, and this site does not harbor any of your information for simply commenting on a story – NOTHING – ZIP – ZILCH – NADA.
GOT NEWS? If you have any news, feel free to send it along. You know we’re more news than fluff, or chamber of commerce around here, right? I am also running still photographs you send in – on the Texas Fly Fishing Report whenever those hit the airwaves, so text me your photographs with – date / general location / names / descriptions.
Monday A Concrete Sidewalk-ing Gray Day
Fly Fishing in Texas on Hold as Weather Dominates Again
Good Monday Morning! I only have one question: How do you keep a dog from drinking your coffee from the cup on the table sitting right in front of you? I tried crying a minute ago, and I think that may have worked …
Spring is a fickle thing. The overcast, wind and threats of rain are keeping me from cranking up and going out on a search mission yet again today. To say it’s frustrating is an understatement, and frustrating is a word that I consider an umbrella comment covering a lot of fly fishing situations in North Texas right now. Frustrating.
Many of the “mods” to the skiff are getting knocked out due to this weather though. Having the skiff sitting right here in front of me means one of two things: 1) working on it, or, 2) wishing I was on it out there somewhere. Impatience.
As soon as I am free to roam, and the weather cooperates, you can bet we will be doing things differently this year. An earlier post pretty much pointed our direction(s) to walk away from local fish to go find fish elsewhere. Yes, I know it’s a cardinal sin, but I’m no saint. Go.
Our North Texas fly fishing community has definitely come out of hibernation. The e-mails for lessons and trips have already exceeded last year at this time. It’s funny that a day on a calendar, or a day or two of warm weather awakens the fly fishing bears so easily. A few years ago, we had a school-shutting snowstorm on March 14! North Texas is such a fickle fly fishing mistress.
The sun is up somewhere because they say it is so, but here we are left in grey, guessing. The clock tells me it’s time to go though. Dogs need walking, and the skiff needs caressing …
Be sure to look back to last week’s report available in this post – and on YouTube. It always comes at the end of the week, and leads through the end of this week.
Monday Afternoon Sidewalk Frozen Over
Time to Tie and Dye a Fly
Good Monday to you all! I always want to put an “!” in Monday, somewhere somehow, and this Monday, all things considered, needs a few of those exclamation points littered throughout!
The temperature is having a hard time breaking 30-degrees here “North of Normal,” and this weather really is good for one thing (fly fishing related), and that is undertaking a huge fly demand from people having trouble in big water that is clear, aka. “Texas Zebra Mussel Lakes.”
I gleaned the knowledge from watching multiple conventional fishing shows that emphasize natural colors for their hardbalts in clear / clearing lake waters. You are well versed on the successes of my “Black-on-Black” series of Clousers (for mongo bass), but you would be surprised to know that in my assault on other lakes last year? The Black-on-black ruffled a few scales, but very few, and my reaction to the slow bite? I went with brighter and brighter flies in an attempt to generate “attraction” to my fly. That, in retrospect, was probably exactly the wrong thing to do.
DYEING NATURAL FIBERS
Somewhere in this pile of books I overestimate to be a “fly fishing library” there’s a pamphlet-styled-book on “Dyeing Organic Fibers” as I recall it was named … I have no idea where that went. The plan is to tie and dye a fly made from border collie, and do it well – colorfast and realistic. It’s hard to believe I had to get my “own” dog to have free reign over my supply of dog hair, and this dog has a red-brown that lends itself more to shrimp and crayfish patterns … but Finn has enough white that it’s just begging to be “borrowed.” It is certainly time for him to start earning his kibble, and this is how it’s done around here.
What makes the effort different is the idea of cutting harvesting trimming ever so subtly, his hair, tying the fly AND THEN dyeing the fly. It means creating a single-tone fly, but we can certainly provide some contrast with flash. All I know for sure is; a fly tied with border collie is a killer that is supreme to bucktail of any flavor, as durable as synthetics and has an exponentially longer fiber than any upcountry winter bucktail grows.
We are supposed to have a break in the weather this week, but it is also supposed to be tweaked by wind, so we are in a wait-and-see mode for the week. It seems like it is about time to sit down and NOW (after all the early year shite) concentrate on all things fly. I just started on the book, “Bugwater,” and it is an incredible book for anyone who wants to take the journey to the microscopic level of bugs emulated in the fly fishing world. The photography is a showstopper (you remember I’m a “picture guy” right?), and the text is just as abundant as the photography content. I will write a review on this one once I can honestly say I have read (at least some of) the text.
Meanwhile, have a great week, don’t release any memos, don’t beat your spouse, and show up here on Valentine’s day – if not sooner!!!
Monday Morning Sidewalk – Bass O Matic
Bass on Fly Rod
Good Monday Morning, or what’s left of it! This could be a week for the memoir after another weekend to forget! A book review pressing down on me – guess I should be different and actually read the book. This one’s right up our alley, “The Best Bass Flies,” subtitled, “How to Tie and Fish Them.”
It’s funny, I threw my box at them last week on Lewisville Lake, and what worked in the end, and worked quite well? The last fly I tied on was a Black / Black Clouser on a circle jig hook. I found some very good structure around a high pressure cove, and picked off four there, before heading back over to the old dam riprap I had just covered with a different fly – and put the hit on fish there as well. IT WAS the fly. And, if YOU are fly fishing for bass right now, and everything’s right, but everything’s wrong; try a super-slow retrieve to go with an impressionistic fly.
One nice thing about Lewisville Lake is that you can find cover from our prevailing winds this time of year – those would be the NORTH or SOUTH winds. This lake may provide cover, but it feels like the bigger bass have departed. I can’t wait to challenge them this spring.
I have some feelers out for new stories to work this off-season, but am not hearing back from my primary contacts at the moment. Seems like everyone is busy these days, these weekdays anyway. What’s up with that? I am looking for anyone who would be interested (not magazine story related) in a day trip to the Blue River this week, or maybe a meetup in BendBow. Just let me know.
Well, it’s on to a pending welding project, a pending website build and post production on images for a band and that website build. Throw in a new product I am creating for the skiff crowd – doing a “Go Fund Me” for that one – and this week was over when it began.
Enough said, let me know what YOU are doing and where you are catching these days. If you say, “PK below the dam,” I would say, “You must live closer than I do!” I may make it out that terribly long way once the TPWD starts feeding the striper some fresh trout, but until then … have at it.
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