Monday Morning Sidewalk – The Dogs Are Still Hunting in North Texas
carp on fly texas fly fishing ray roberts smallmouth
Good morning! If only for a moment, welcome to our escape from the US political reality show unfolding in front of us whether we like it or not. In North Texas, it has been a tall dose of reality, as we also saw our Texas Ranger baseball team bowed down to the Toronto Bluejays in resounding fashion as well. As for the first, it was Yogi Berra who said, “It ain’t over until it’s over,” and as to the Rangers, I heard the saying, “Pitching beats hitting” somewhere, and obviously pitching loses to hitting – if it’s inferior. Now that we have survived the long Ranger baseball season, and are surviving the political season … let’s get into the fly fishing season changes.
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE?
Would you believe our carp season keeps on giving? I think there are plenty of folks who hang up ALL seasons on fly prematurely – no matter where they are, or what the fish is. Here, a burst of excitement comes with the heating of our little piece of planet that starts in April and goes into the summer. The excitement is all about carp, essentially a husky saltwater-like fish that comes along for all to see as the water warms for summer. It also helps that so many followers of the carp are working their way through a school year as teachers, administrators and parents. And they see the coming of the carp as the coming of summer, and a break from all the work, and a break from all the anemic synthetic stocker rainbow trout of the (nowadays) anemic North Texas winters. (anemic is apparently my word of the day)
If you simply read the discussion boards (anemic nowadays as well) at places like Texas Fishing Forum, you would believe that when it’s time to go back to school, the carp season is to be put away, over and done just like the summer. Well, I am here to tell you that is simply not true. Sure, there is an arc to the season, just like any freshwater season of fly fishing, and we are definitely on the downside of the carp arc by the time October rolls around North Texas. If you think it’s over, well you could dismiss what I say as “carp-chamber-of-commerce-speak,” but it ain’t over!
As I was searching a particular area of Lake Ray Roberts for smallmouth bass Saturday, I couldn’t help but take the trolling motor ride over to a “carpy” looking area just to see if there was anybody home. I was quickly distracted from the memory of catching a yearling smallmouth on Ray Roberts a few days earlier, as the carp showed themselves to be up, tail down and feeding.
Now, I quickly realized that, just like Donald Trump now realizes, a video with audio is actually proof of character. And without video, you might have reason to question the character of reporting on carp in October as “chamber of commerce speak.” As luck would have it, I was able to get a couple of phone photos, and later I wired myself up and had a GoPro running during another carp catch. Three carp landed in the space of less than an hour. Does that tell you something? Nothing but the truth.
Sure, we are all readying for big redfish on salt in Louisiana, or Texas, and sure we are all readying for those sweet rainbows in Oklahoma, but in my neck-of-the-woods we’re also still hunting carp until the last dog dies. And I think we have about two dogs left. The end may be in sight, my latest carp so far was caught years ago on a mild November 1 day, but then maybe that last dog has a huge heart. That’s what we’re here to see this year, so stay tuned!
Please have a fantastic week as you go about your business. Perhaps you can sense a new energy level flying from these fingers these days? I guess for us “survivors*,” we never know for sure just when, if, or how we will recover. I am at the year road signs now, and finally feeling like my new reality is a whole lot better than I was beginning to think it would be; strength is catching up with energy, overeating is the norm and outlasting anyone I fish with is again my standard. Certainly, my work needs to be a more pressing obstacle to fly fishing than it currently is, but even that has been on the upswing lately. (See Texas Parks & Wildlife Cover Photograph)
*I hate the term “survivor(s)” when it comes to cancer. As for myself, I am a “cancer beater” just to be perfectly clear.
+Shannon Drawe
+Texas Fly Caster
Category: Body-Mind-Soul, Complimentary Reading, Culture on the Skids, Fishing Reports, Fly Fishing For Carp, Life Observed, North Texas, On The Water
