Texas Fly Fishing Report – Monday Morning Rolling In
Whoa. Is it December 5 already? What happened to the year? For you young whippersnappers reading, you probably get tired of hearing the older crowd saying, “time flies so fast, you don’t realize!” Well it’s the truth. We don’t have much time to end this year, tie it up with a pretty little bow, and put it under the tree.
Our weather has finally taken a turn pretty much across Texas, and the cool fronts that are hitting North Texas are also making their way through the State, instead of fizzling out at about Austin. We have 20’s-30’s temperatures in this week’s forecast – the coldest air in two years. That means the patterns are being set for the Texas Gulf Coast, and the rest of Texas as well. On the Coast: fronts with high winds followed by bluebird calm days that reveal trout working, reds in the guts and flounder everywhere. For the bait casters – I am hearing about bull reds in just about all the jetty channels.
READ A LOT MORE!
NORTH TEXAS
As fly fishers, we are now in the “tailrace” or race to the border (TX-OK) mode. As predictable as it generally is, you can find some tug from stripers below Denison Dam (getting smaller every day), dinky sand bass and some stripers below Possum Kingdom Dam, nothing below Ray Roberts, very little below Lewisville Lake (although they actually put some stocked rainbows there every winter), and not much better or worse – below any more dams. If you are interested in the cooling lakes, and fly fishing lakes, there’s only one left. That lake is Squaw Creek Reservoir that provides cooling for the nukes there.
Of course if you move east, the weather can get slightly more temperate, and one good winter bet is Dangerfield for a unique bite – chain pickerel .
After that, North Texas flees to either the Coast or to Oklahoma. We have already put in our .10-cents-worth on what is going on the Blue River at this time, and we will probably sneak away to the Lower Mountain Fork sometime this December to report from there.
SOUTH TEXAS
It’s a rough cut, to divide the Great State of Texas horizontally – just about at San Marcos, but we can keep from getting bogged down by cutting, and eating the cake a half at a time.
I bet you guys down south are pretty excited about the Guadalupe River trout getting cranked up! And if you are a salty dog like me, then you are ready for those cool fronts to trigger pattern on the Texas Coast. There’s no place I would rather be during this miserable weather than on the coast. It just makes the weather so bearable, and changes so quickly.
I’ve also been wondering about the cooling lakes in San Antonio, and if they are still online? I have no idea, but that is one of the last bastions (as far as I know) for freshwater redfish in the State of Texas. Lake Braunig and Lake Calveras are both cooling lakes near San Antonio, and I really think they should be explored by fly fishers – sooner, rather than later. I don’t see any indication that they are offline nowadays.
LOCAL CLOSEUP
I saw birds working bait on Ray Roberts yesterday, and actually some of the biggest flocks of birds I have seen working there all year. While the sand bass were not on top, they were obviously on the bottom and pushing the shad up. That action went on for hours and did not roam, like summertime whack-a-mole sand bass action. Largemouth bass are also active as well, but the bigger ones are deep. Conditions are tough, and you have to get some shelter from the wind to have any chance. Contact me for extreme specifics.
Thanks for reading this Monday Morning Sidewalk. Stay safe. Say warm this week. Don’t forget we have a special art show coming right here next Saturday (the 10th.)! Contact me for details NOW. I may be a little slow on the response, as all free time is spent getting the place ready for that show.
Category: Complimentary Reading, Culture on the Skids, Fishing Reports, Fly Fishing for Largemouth Bass, Fly Fishing for Redfish, Lower Mountain Fork Oklahoma, Saltwater Fly Fishing Texas
