Tag: Texas Fly Fishing Report
Texas Fly Fishing Report 061518
Here’s the Deal! Texas Fly Fishing Report
Hello, and thanks again for tuning in to the Texas Fly Caster YouTube Channel, and checking out this new video report on fly fishing opportunities in Texas. Make sure you contact me if you are in Houston the week of June 25! I’ll be there too, and spending time with a friend as he goes through a round of chemo at MD Anderson, but there’s always some time to sneak off and go to Bayou City Angler or maybe a long delayed trip to Fishing Tackle Unlimited.
All I know for sure is – the wind and heat are draining the lake pretty quickly now, and the fish are dazed and confused by the rapid decline. Saltwater fly fishing is also subject to heat now – your best shallow bet is early and late on moving tides (always on moving tides!).
Fly Fishing Texas Report 032318 – Weather Says Spring Fish Say Wait a Minute
Texas Fly Fishing Report
This is your fresh Texas Fly Fishing Report for the weekend. Remember that you can find more words here than on these videos — I know, that’s a scary thought!
Things are aligning nicely for next week, if we don’t get too much of a good thing (rain forecast). Alas, it is Texas, so bigger, more and too much is probably what we’re in store for. Watch the video, and I will break down the effect massive spring rains have on our fly fishing opportunities – specifically for lakes and ponds. Of course we all know our rivers eventually lead to the Gulf of Mexico, and I will tell you what I have been seeing down on the coast at Port Aransas lately (seeing online).
TEXAS SKIFF LIFE
I finished up wiring in the head unit for the skiff today, and for no good reason, I recorded the video of that final install, and firing up of the tunes. It sounds very good, and does not rattle the boat (if you are worried about crushing bass or too much power to the speakers). When the people who know me best, and who have been on my skiff, say, “YOU NEED! a STEREO!” I was happy to oblige. If it ever gets too loud, let me know!
Texas Fly Fishing Report 030918 – Spring Has Sprung as Dams Draw Down
TEXAS FLY FISHING REPORT 030918
The Texas Fly Fishing Report is back from the winter break, rightfully so and ready to go! We have plenty of fishing, fly fishing action, to report today. The report’s home base is in North Texas, so in such a large state conditions will vary wildly.
What we are experiencing in this part of Texas is a fantastic pattern for fly fishers that starts below a lot of the lake dams. Numerous lakes are beyond conservation pool as this report goes out, and authorities are releasing water to bring those lake levels down. I have documented those releases, and the fish caught during those releases, over several years (beginning in 2010).
This phenomenon never happened during the drought years (about 4 years) as you may recall, and I expected us to continue along the downward drought spiral going into the Texas fishing season in 2018. But we have had surprisingly good slow rains that have saturated the ground, pushed back the drought map (away from North Texas), filled the lakes and now come the lake releases in advance of the real rain during the “rainy months.”
Right now, the fly fishing is absolutely fantastic on these releases – for the most part. All we have to do is find a releases, like the one at Ray Roberts Dam, and go throw a few good tight loops. Sure, these places (especially the Ray Roberts Dam) are overrun with conventional fishermen who finally found their pot of gold, and you will see them there day-after-day, in the same spot, slaughtering fish day-after-day. And they leave behind a mountain of trash and submerged lines in the water to tangle and lose flies on, but if you can handle the crowds and the carnage? Well, like you see in the video; these releases can be one big box of chocolates. The big bass are coming in, the sand bass are up and full-on running, and if you sprinkle in some hybrid action … what’s so hard about that?
DETAILS
You will want a 7 or 8 weight rod to be able to fight these fish in huge current, and be able to turn them toward you.
I like a reel I can count on – with good drag and a big enough spool to manage line to ALWAYS go to reel. Going to the reel is very important in these situations, and that is because line gets caught on everything in riprap fly fishing – rocks, fences, bushes and everything else we find in these dirty situations.
I am using a fluorocarbon leader with either an 8 or 10 pound tip – remember you can control depth by what your tip is – bigger is shallower.
Year after year, the red over white Clouser catches these fish. But your hook needs to be something extreme, like a Tiemco 600SP, or a circle hook, which I have gone to to allow fish to hook themselves on a slack drift. The circle hooks are great, and do exactly what they are designed to do – and cost a fraction of what super-sharp normal hooks cost.
Where I am fishing, the fish are in very tight bunches, so you will have to search and fan cast until you find them. Once you find them, don’t go looking elsewhere – keep going back to the spot you found. The spot you see in the video, for example, was about 10 feet across!
Friday Fly Report New Story Drake Magazine on Newsstands Now
Friday Texas Fly Fishing Report Gift Giving Drake Magazine Goes Big
Well, I wish there were more time for a Christmas fly fishing present list, but not in the life I lead nowadays!
Word started trickling in that the story on Clyde going to Rockport – Port Aransas, Texas, had actually gone “big” in the winter Drake Magazine, and sure enough, the editors decided to go two pages, a tease on the cover and a few photographs inside. To my way of thinking, story ideas should come pouring in now! (Right)
I will grab a copy and make sure to brag (show-and-tell) a little more when that chance comes along. The insanity of going to a mall, and speculating the local bookstore (at the mall) has the magazine, is frightening. Why even bother?
Saturday is the last day at the Pop Up Shop in Denton, Texas, so for those of you who are sitting there on the fence wondering what to get? Let me spend my last bit of effort on “Christmas Gift Giving” in pointing you to the shop located 301 S. Locust St., Denton, Texas. You will find something there that fills the bill. Unfortunately, none of my fly artist folks came through with anything (to sell) this year – which I honestly half-expected. Those who dabble in art soon realize what the game is all about – when deadline push comes to shove. I will be ready next year with an entirely new line of art in several different media, and almost all fish based – and no gimmicks.
THE REPORT You Decide
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I see plenty of reports of FAT redfish in the area where Hurricane Harvey made landfall, and I see a lot of speckled trout being caught as well. The specks do winter well (remember Leslie’s fish from January 2016?).
To read the saltwater report from TPWD, simply click here – TPWD Current Saltwater Report, un-pimped and from the source. What a gig, getting paid by the state to reproduce those weekly reports that barely ever change!
With the current weather, your best bet (if you are in North Texas) is to head for Oklahoma. This is the weather we’ve needed, and once the water clears from the runoff, it should colder which helps even more. I had a local contributor give me some super inside info on fly selection for the Blue River this week …
If you are an Instagram watcher, then (I assume) you see the cute way images are coming from BendBow lately? Blotting the background at what was once the Evening Hole, or other “magical, mystical” locations? Just a little too cute for my taste … just calling it as I see it.
It’s hard to believe how sketchy posts have become here, but I am looking for someone to notice that there’s slack in this line, and so far? If you read this low down in the post, I like you even more! I believe something has happened to people’s reading habits, and I feel I am behind on the uptake? It wouldn’t be the first time.
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Friday Fly Fishing Report – Oklahoma and Texas
New to the Texas fly fishing scene?
You’ve come to the right place. Just about every week, I compile information sent to me by e mail subscription from taxpayer supported organizations, like the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and during winter coldwater season, from the Oklahoma Wildlife Department. The information comes in bulk form, and I whittle it down to what is the essence of what I would want to know if I were you. I am not a newbie, so take that last sentence with a grain of rock salt, and a heaping helping of optimism. Why? Because you have still landed on the most in depth and interactive fly fishing website based in Texas (and just about anywhere else for that matter). I’ve been called arrogant (by the guy who’s photo is in the dictionary under the word). There are so many synonyms for arrogant, feel free to fill in your blank with whatever works for you. And when you’re done, be sure to simply count up ten years of information, and count up the number of words in almost 2-thousand individual posts while you’re at it.
Sure, Google doesn’t rank this site where it should be. The only time they did was back in the days when their spiders were accurate. Nowadays? Search is covered up by Google ads, geek fly fishers who’ve stuffed the internet with worthless incoming links, and even dead sites that never move or change. Page rank has become a worthless measure. They (Google) are even doing their best to destroy YouTube these days – making imbedding more difficult (so you have to go to YouTube), and with declining ranking standards. Regardless, Youtube is still showing the greatest future potential of the internet, bar none.
Is it any wonder so many have retreated to the fake news of Facebook. We may as well call it “Fakebook.” Of course they can’t be held responsible …
Coming in for a Hard Landing – JUMPING OFF THAT SOAP BOX NOW!
FRIDAY DECEMBER 1
I just felt like writing that out long board style, so maybe the end of this year will come even sooner than I want. This was one of those years. It had good, it had bad, and it still has downright ugly going on.
The good was a carp season, a season to end all carp seasons, and just maybe it has? The only season that compares to 2017 was the 2016 season, and that’s in the last ten years. The trends are pretty well documented here – for the last ten years. I would be looking the fish gods in the eye if I said I think the 2018 season will compare to the last two.
We are dry as a bone after two good water years. I don’t hear anyone talking the dreaded “d” word yet, but if December is like November? that’s what we will have – another good old drought. File drought under ugly.
The bad was, and continues to be, the ongoing beat-down of my photography business. While there have been the best bright spots (articles in Lone Star Outdoor News and Drake Magazine), the dark days dominate the year (magazine closures). Most of my “old” friends still marvel that I have been a photographer for so long now (30 years). It certainly helped to create this site ten years ago, and hone my writing to create complete packages for publications. Still, if things were as in the past, I would be spending all my free time in Port Aransas and Rockport documenting that disaster … it seems like it’s already forgotten, and if money didn’t matter? It would be an epic photographic story. I am sure some trust-funder will get that done in my stead.
I’m no hipster-trust-funder-fly-fan in case you haven’t noticed, so the long exhausting manual labor weekends are filed under bad, but also under good. They’re good because I am much stronger than before the bout with HPV throat cancer two years ago, much much stronger. Of course with this particular manual labor comes the threat of serious injury, and I teeter on that edge every single weekend. The beat goes on.
DECEMBER 1 Report
OKLAHOMA
Blue River
November 28. Elevation normal, water 53 and clear. Trout good on caddis flies, in-line spinnerbaits, midges, nymphs, PowerBait, gold spoons and San Juan worms around points, rocks, below rifles and obstructions in current in deeper water. Stocked approximately 4,800 rainbow trout on November 22. Report submitted by Matt Gamble, biologist at the Blue River Public Fishing and Hunting Area.
Lower Mountain Fork
November 26. Elevation normal, water clear. Trout good on PowerBait along rocks. Report submitted by Mark Hannah, game warden stationed in McCurtain County.
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