The Texas Aquifers and Fly Fishing Fall Striper Denison Dam Everything in Between
texas aquifers fly fishing texas denison dam texoma striper fly fishing
It was hard to know where to start when it came to this late release of our regular Water Wednesday report.
On the coast, where I was last weekend, the conditions are actually considered dangerous, with measured amounts of human feces and flesh eating bacteria in the Galveston Bay system. The smell there is awful, and you could find alligator carcasses, and all manner of debris along areas like the jetties and Galveston Ship Channel. And if you look at the river systems that lead to the Galveston area? the inflows are not letting up at all. All I can say is, HEAD SOUTH, way south for salt.
I read an interesting article in the Houston Chronicle while there recently. It highlighted the increasing consumption of our aquifer resources here in Texas, something I haven’t really thought a lot about since we don’t fly fish subterranean … but of course should be a part of our water concerns for our State.
First, proper credit goes to the Chronicle for a balanced publication and consistent balanced coverage of Texas’ assets and liabilities. I come from the newspaper business, and know balance when I see it.
The article talks about how even a record setting year like we have now does not fully recharge the Texas aquifer system. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/texas/article/Texas-planners-look-to-aquifers-to-prepare-for-6326328.php The topic of aquifers, as you may read, is important to the entire State of Texas.
I continue to wonder when Texas and California, and the rest of the USA, will finally belly up to the bar, bite the bullet, and start building water desalinization plants? Think about it. If California had been proactive, not wasted the time they are now, and started building plants twenty years ago? I always marvel at reports that say, “If this were built X number of years ago, it would have cost Y. Today, the cost is Y x 10 .”
PREDICTABLE UNPREDICTABILITY
Locally, I’m not kidding when I say the fly fishing scene is becoming predictable in its unpredictability. If you can know before you go (which I am having a problem with), for say, a spot below your favorite dam, you can take advantage of situations where fish feed on the flows. A “wide open” flow is all but impossible to fly fish, but if you catch a time when the flows are down and manageable – the fish are more than willing. And as long as we are relegated to being off lakes, out of flooding rivers and creeks, what else do we inlanders have? Know before you go. Obey all USACE warnings- signs and horns.
Off in the future, after all the flow has settled and a dam like Denison Dam is back in a generation pattern instead of a flooding pattern: I guarantee you there will be good fly fishing for striper below that dam. It has been years, but the wheel has turned, and this fall will see me there as long as I can put gas in the tank.
How am I so certain about Denison Dam? History of course, and the fact that at a much smaller dam – Lake Ray Roberts – I am seeing thousands and thousands of shad (every size), nay millions of shad, below the dam, and they didn’t just swim up to escape the Lewisville pollution. They came through the dam just as striper have at Texoma – Denison Dam, just as crappie and sand bass have at Ray Roberts. We all remember that thousands of striper finish their morning runs where? — at the Dam. Imagine having breakfast at your local McDonald’s … you sit down to let it settle, in the booth after dumping your empty tray, and get sucked into another dimension – along with everyone with a mile of of your booth. I’ll eat my had if I’m wrong.
JULY
Looking ahead to the rest of this week and into July – we’re going to get a bit thin here during a traditional month off for business and pleasure. It could get quite twisted right at first (next Monday), but a trip to the Redneck Riviera, Biloxi, and then continuing to Cocoa, FL, to pick up the Lagoon Skiff, and back home, will round things up to somewhere near three-thousand miles. And that’s before a trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley thrown in somewhere along the way. The “EPIC” label probably fits this July. Fireworks anybody? Whistlers and Sparklers perhaps.
Here is a good article that is educational on the dead zone – http://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/environmental/courses/seniorseminar/2013/students/newcomer.php .
Category: Complimentary Reading, Culture on the Skids, Destination Fly Fishing, Fishing Reports, Gulf Coast Report, Hot Spot, Life Observed, North Texas
