Blue Gill on the Fly

That time of year...

2011-11-08T05:58:00.000-08:00

I am looking out my window on the 49th floor. It is raining, which is awesome. I love winter. I hope its brutal. I am looking forward to more Pickerel fishing, going after some Crappies, and hunting season.

I thought I would post some more pictures from Alaska, back in June...

Victory At Last

2011-11-07T06:08:00.000-08:00

I left Dallas about 5:30 on Saturday and headed East to Daingerfield. MY goal was to finally wash off the stink of 3 years of failure...

They don't like each other...

Today was a good day...

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming...

2011-11-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers!

I have been away for about a month due to travel, work, and family life!

But I am back, with a few finny exploits to share, skillful extracted from the jaws of a hot...depressing...drought sticken summer.

Back around the beginning of October, me and the Misses visited the Frio and Llano rivers.

Looking fine boo...Work that BVK baby....Emalie in the Llano

Nice Cichlid

I caught a bass!

Another Rio

The Frio outside of Leakey

the Wilson's bass bully is a great LMB fly

Solitude

Bustin' Lips

Emalie taking photos with her fisheye lens...

I took my friend Eric and his son Aiden fishing out at SIX-O last weekend...

Aiden was the MVP, but they both caught their personal best Blue gills...

The draught has effected almost every lake I visit...

More to come this weekend!

The Cake Is A Lie

2011-08-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

Pretty Much Epic

2011-08-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

I left Emalie snoozing in bed around 4am on Saturday.

By the time I was passing through Downtown Dallas it was raining and my joy was mixed with the worry that it would screw up my fishing...

I arrived in Athens about an hour and 45 minutes later and was pushing the john boat, sans motor, into the drink about 6:30.

I was fishing a boogle bug popper with a #12 Surveyor Nymph w/tungsten head and after that got lost I switched to a #12 Silver Lightning Bug.

Red Spot Sunfish on a psych prince

Gill Zilla

Nice Native Strain Bluegill

Wedged my self here

Caught fish there

Fed a gator...

Sunday Emalie and I visited the Folks and she caught some little bluegills in the neighborhood...

More from Alaska

2011-08-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

I am heading out to East Texas this weekend, hopefully I will have some nice gillPorn to post early next week...

Until then, enjoy some Pike!

My buddy Pat getting out of the float plane on Alexia Lake

His Biggest Snot Rocket

Here there be monsters

How come I can catch a dozen of these, but I can't catch a cahin pickerel for the life of me!?

Big Shallow Lake

Gotta love the Tyger Wire!

Way to go Pasqual!

I love Umpqua Fly Boxes

2011-08-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

I don't mean to gush but these are great fly boxes. I have owned C&F, Clifton, Orvis and a few others...but these Umpqua boxes are my new favorite.

I like being able to see the flies through the clear case.

The foam is really high quality and doesn't rip.

Variety of sizes and layouts.

Strong hinges and closing clasps.

Aesthetically pleasing colors.

I need to try out their streamer/flats box

http://www.flyfishusa.com/flyboxes/Umpqua/umpqua-fly-boxes.html

I Can See It Raining Fire In The Sky

2011-08-09T07:40:00.001-07:00

Emalie and I visited some friends in Breckinridge Colorado near the end of last week and over the weekend. We went on a float trip on the Colorado, did a hike up to an Alpine lake to search for Cutthroat and visited a mining museum. We also enjoyed the mornings that were 38 degrees...

Colorado Brown Trout. Whater was high and muddy but we still managed a couple dozen fish...

Em's big catch...

Hike up to Mowhawk lake...

Don't go chasin' water falls...

Shrooms!

Emalie and Rebecca making snow angels

Rocks!

Emalie's Cutthroat

Snow in August?

Hopefully doing some fishing this weekend.

Been reading a great book about the history of Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen, It is a very interesting historical account of many of our nations key moments of the last 60 years and the development of "Black Projects"

Good summer read.

Our Lady of Perpetual Ephemera

2011-07-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

For some strange reason I cannot leave reply comments on my own blog. Its like google doesn't recognize me on my office computer, and since that is the only thing I have that accesses the internet. My email jlallred200@yahoo.com is a far more reliable way of conversing with me.

Here are some shots of osme nice grayling I caught in Lake Clark Alaska.

Pretty Bronze Grayling

big and healthy

This next fish is a hyper melanistic individual. Melinism, axanthism, anerythism, xanthism, leucisticism and the more widely known albinism are all generally simple recessive or codominant genetic traits in animals.

These guys were a blast on a 4wt...

Emalie and I are heading to Breckenridge to join some friends and do a float down the Colorado ina couple weeks. After that its a family trip to Hawaii. I am currently making plans for a solo jaunt to Brazil for some Peacock Bass... few more destinations in the works.

Kontrashibuna Lake Trout

2011-07-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

As I have written, I recently returned from a week long fishing trip with friends and business associates on Lake Iliamna in Southwest Alaska.

I and my friend Pat took a float plane trip to Kontrashibuna, a high mountain, lake that feeds into Lake Clark. It was a turbulant flight through a few mountian passes but when we finally set down the lake was dead calm. We fished a couple areas where cold streams flowed into the Lake. I caught a number of lakers and landlocked char on white decievers & gummi flies on my 6wt witha full sinking line.

My favorite fish of the trip!

Jaws!

Misquito going after my fish!

Forgiveness please!

2011-07-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy, so I haven't had time to post my Alaska pictures...I will remedy that shortly. For now here are a couple pics from this weekend at Ray Roberts with my friend Pete...

Nice drum

Pete with his first ever Carp! Pete went fishing later that day and caught his first buffalo on the fly as well!

Way to go Pete!

Red, White and Blue Gills

2011-07-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, So these are mostly Red Ears...

I am back from Alaska and will start a series of posts about my trip in the next couple days. Many big fish. Stay tuned!

As Promised...

2011-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

On Sunday my new friend Eric treated me to an introduction to flats fishing for Carp. We visited a couple spots on Ray Roberts...

My first Common Carp on the fly

My Second Carp

Eric and his docile Mirror carp

Nice view of the flats...

My Third Carp....Not a bad way to finish up the day!

On Monday I was at the 32nd Annual BSA Golf Tournament at Stonebriar. I finishe dup a little earlier than anticipated so I drove back to Ray Rob and put in on one of the flats we visited and caught this fatty:

So it wasn't a fluke, I can catch a carp!

Thanks Eric!

Summer So Far...

2011-06-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

I have been busy with work & play and have not had as much desire to post as I normally do.
I will hopefully be updating more regularly after my return from Alaska in July. Till then, here are some of my current goings on:

The Guad in Kerrville

Guad warmouth

Nice red spotted sunfish

Big ol guad red ear

foul hooked tilapia from Clements

My friend Pete fighting the good fight...

Petes best bass

Emalie and I visited the Medina back in May...

Nice Rio

Sexy fisher lady...

Bull Creek outside of Austin...

I will post some more in the morning!

Poor Poor James

2011-05-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

If you have a days work
And a good word
And a nights rest
After keeping
The company of your friends
And a woman
To greet the morning with
Then you are blessed
You are blessed above all men

Tilapia

Red Spot

I Was Sealed In A River Bend

2011-05-10T06:07:00.000-07:00

I visited Lake Murchison around noon on Saturday. I used the jonboat to visit some areas of structure I identified on a previous trip, and allowed the wind to drift me about a half mile down the western shore. I was mainly using my 8 wt with a #4 white boogle bug popper, with a small size 8 bendback minnow as the dropper.

One of the bigger bass of the day

As before the alligators were out in force...

obviously not a fan of the Boogle Bug

As the afternoon wore on I switched to my 6wt with a full sinking line and visited a few humps and areas of submurged timber. The black crappie were all holding about 11 feet down, a few feet above them I got into some nice blue gills.

I used various small wooly buggers, white, brown and chartreuse being the most effective...

Biggest Bluegill of the day

New breathable Tailwaters hat (thanks Travis!) and new digital camo Buff...also a nice crappie

After letting the fly sink for about 30 seconds and slowly raising the rod, I hooked up with a few nice red ears in the deeper part of the lake...

Say AHHHHH

Drive This Seven Inch Stake Through my Philadelphia Heart

2011-05-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

I drive alot. My commute to work takes 45 minutes, both ways. I drive a couple hours to go fish every weekend. So I spend alot of time in the car listening to music. I have a pretty big and varied record collection and I am one of the few people I know who still buys CDs and Vinyl. Mabye once a week from now on I plan to post a record I like and some info about it. The internet is big and if you are interested I am sure you can find a sample of these bands.

Ink & Dagger, Self Titled

This is one of my favorite post-hardcore (I hate the term too) bands and albums.

Released after the death of Sean McCabe, it is a complex, jamming and unique record. There are not to many things that sound like Ink & Dagger and they influenced alot of great bands.

I own all of their albums and most of their 7"s, but this last one is my favorite. Released on Buddyhead 8 or 9 years ago...

Time to use my soap box

2011-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

If those of you who are members of Texas Fishing Forums, would be so kind to go vote in the April FOTM poll under the fly fishing forum... I would be very appreciative.

You will find my wonderful Warmouth photo as well as many other nice pix by other members. Let your conscience guide you...

but that is a very nice Warmouth.....

Good, Better & Best

2011-05-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

Good: Eating Fogo De Choa on Friday night with clients and family

Better: Having one of the best days of fishing in my life on Saturday

Best: Going to sleep on Sunday with the news that Osama Bin Ladin has assumed several thousand degrees Fahrenheit in perpetuity

Every once in a while we are blessed with a day of fishing, that when communicated to others makes us feel guilty at our good fortune. I am going to call it good fortune, rather than Skill because no one likes a braggart.

I spent Sun-up to Sun-Down on Saturday at Camp Cherokee, pulling the rare 200+ fish day out of some prime East Texas realestate. Me, a jon boat and some gators...

Found a few beds while stalking the shore, the big coppernose were colored up!

#6 Boogle Bug, a Mouth Full!

I spent the second half of the day in a jon boat...

God bless "Structure" ...side note, I love the Rio "Small mouth" line..

This girl literally caused the jon boat to spin 180 degrees.

Hooked up with 4 or 5 of these this size, only managed to land a couple...

Last fish of the day...

A wallet, belt, 2 boots and 4 back scratchers...

What Do I Spy?

2011-04-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Why Sunfish nests!

The aptly named Mud Creek runs along Broadway in Tyler.

Watch out for joggers and the next Lance Armstrong.

Catching green sunfish is alot like picking your nose. It's easy, what you end up with is usually small, slimey and sometimes has a good bit of color to it!
(Thats the best I can do on Tuesday folks!)

Another shot of the Warmouth that people seem to really like.

Beulah Land

2011-04-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Passover & Easter

Went to Tyler this weekend to see the Family. Got a chance to do some fishing at Tyler State Park on Saturday. Had some luck and caught a couple nice Warmouth and a Redspot Sunfish.

Check out that Ruby...

Red Spot

These things have a great attitude, such a big mouth!

I stopped by this nasty little creek near Best Buy and caught a bazillion Green sunfish...

After Easter Lunch, Emalie and I visited Camp Cherokee...my new favorite Private Lake!

I jumped three just like this, but this is the one I got to hand. I was using a popper dropper rig with a #8 Bead head wooly bugger on 3x tippet, you can't really horse them in on a rig like that.

More fishing later this week, Hopefully we get some more rain.

Whole lotta Breamin' Goin' on

2011-04-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

Emalie wanted to go jogging last night so we went to Coppell for about an hour. While she worked on her buns of steel I caught a few gills...

Big, mature and fiesty Bull Gills pulled from their weedy home...thanks for the tip Austin!

#8 Boogle Bug is no match for the Gillzilla

Pepsi loves the smell of fish

The creek near my house has been starting to turn on aswell

Make that a double!

A few weeks ago I went fishing with Austin and his grandfather at Texoma and caught my first Small Mouth. Pic by Pondbass.

Heading out east, down south, far north and wayyyyy far west in the very near future.

Paluxy River

2011-04-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

I visited my usual haunts on the Paluxy this weeked; a stretch between big rocks and the Brazos and an area down stream of Dinosaur Valley State Park. I consider this my river. I have visited it since I was a kid and have fished it a couple dozen times in the last few years. It is beautiful and rarely dissapoints. That was the case this weekend.

This was the largest bass of the day, I hooked a 4 or 5 pounder but my #10 nymph couldn't keep the connection for me!

I rigged up a popper dropper rig with a # 10 Solar Flare Boogle Bug and a 3 foot section of 3x fluorocaron ending in this new bead headed Bee fly. It really did the trick on the sunfish in the deeper sections. I caught around a dozen Black Crappie and about as many chunky Red Ears.

Fishin' Durrty

After lunch I made my way to a different section of the river that was only around 2 feet deep and gin clear. The number of fish was amazing. Suckers, Carp, 4 species of sunfish, catfish, large mouths and spotted bass and turtles everywhere... The best part of the day was stumbling on a colonial nesting site of red ears. Site casting to big, spooky sunfish in a foot of water was awesome.

Check out those colors...

Stop bugging me

Crawfish, its whats for dinner!

In the shallow water this natural colored hares ear worked well

If you want a great burger and a cold beer check out the Green Pickle in Downtown Glen Rose!

You can pick up a bee fly for yourself at www.Millersflyshop.com

White Rock Creek

2011-04-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

Visited White Rock creek a couple weeks ago. Didn't see any of the fabled River Carp Suckers.

Removed the Abel Arm, One less gimmick in my life!

Stay tuned for a contest.

Winner will get a hat, some flies, bragging rights and a virtual high-five.

Sucka Fool

2011-03-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

Sup?

Theo's Bomber

Liberty Ale

Going after Suckers today.

Spring has Sprung

2011-03-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

Went to Athens and did some fishing with Matt from Tailwaters, be a good lad and checkout his blog and wonderful photography: www.theflyphoto.com

Austin called me and we visited our secret spot. Caught this nice Small Mouth Buff...

Go to the Athens Marina and try the Marina Burger.
It rules.

New Fly Line

2011-03-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

I bought a new Rio Small Mouth 6wt Fly line, the Bi-color orange/tan one.

Casts pretty damn good.

Visited McKinney last night and caugth a few....

From Six-O a few weeks ago (only fish I caught):

March Madness!

2011-03-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

I have been fishing up a storm. Lots of fishy pics comming, lots of trips, lots of bluegill, bass and rough fish. Alaska is right around the corner, Hawaii not far behind and a handful of trips to the Hill Country will be scattered in between.

Small PK Striper

Nice Paluxy River bass

Nice East Texas LMB

Anyone else have a headache?

Yes I wear the same fishing outfit for weeks on end.

A Stranger thats Stranger Still

2011-01-31T09:21:00.000-08:00

Austin and I visteded the Sandylake Dam for the first time on Sunday. I have been traveling quite a bit: Kingsville, Austin, New Orleans. Haven't had the occasion to do much fishing. I am heading to Florida later this month and the Sandbass are going to start the run in my neck of the woods soon. Its all uphill from here folks! The worst part of winter is over and those spawning bluegill are just over the next horizon.

Thanks for reading and I will talk to you soon.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-27T06:53:00.000-08:00

I hope veryone had a very merry Christmas. Mine was a blast. Had a good time with the family. I got lots of gifts (who knew I was so good?), one of my favorite of which was some new Simms G4 waders and boots.

So yeah...I needed to test them out.

I left dallas at 5:30am on Sunday and made my way out to Mineral Wells and then on to the hwy16 bridge on the Brazos below PK.

The air was 26 degrees when I slipped into the river...

Yeah...see that dam in the distance? I walked to that. This is what seperates the men from the candyasses. As well as those with common sense.

I met some other fly fishers at the base of the dam and they were really nice folks and I enjoyed chatting with them.

First fish...*looks up* Osprys!

Second fish..hmm...there is a theme here...

Boosh...thats more like it!

Stood here for 3 hours and caught 19 fish, mostly sandbass.

First time to the PK tailrace, first striped bass on the fly, new waders.....

OMGEHWH HH#*(H*HH)G#$H$*()^&$^(YUIWGHS:B:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!

Elm Fork @ Ray Roberts Dec. 19th

2010-12-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

Sterling and I left about 6 in the morning.

I caught about 20 small sandbass.

Crappy pic from my blackberry.

Will probably go back on friday morning

Bowfin, My Bowfin

2010-12-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

Went out to Lake Fork at the direction of a friend from the TFF. Had a good time. Fished under a bridge and caught a male bowfin! The Hispanic family next to me, fishing with minnows, caught 5 or 6 and proceeded to kill the first 3 until I intervened and instructed them that it was unnecessary and that they wouldn't eat all the crappie (they were doing that themselves). On their stringer they had a number of really nice crappie, both black and white, a number of undersized ones, and around a dozen bass, the largest being around 6 lbs.

The male I caught, Illustrating the males tail spot and green fins.

A large female murdered by the meat fishers...

Wouldn't want to get a giner in there!

Swans, Trout and Bowfin

2010-12-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

This last Sunday Emalie and I met up with my uncle Frank for some "trout fishing" at the TFFC. Frank was eager to learn how to cast and catch fish on the fly, so what better place to practice?

Franks first Trout

Emalie battles...

An entirely synthetic fish

Drum fly strikes again

2 1/2 feet of bowfin goodness

We took a tour of the museum and exhibits available and I snapped this picture of an awesome mature bowfin. How anyone could not love these thigns is beyond me. It came straight up to the glass and looked me in the eye before retreating to the back of the tank.

On friday we went to see the opening of Darron Aranofsky's "Black Swan"

One of my favorite directors, I had been looking forward to the film for some time. It did not dissapoint.

Feeling Squirrely

2010-11-30T06:43:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I took Emalie Squirrel hunting on some public land near Lake Ray Roberts, and after a couple fruitless hours of scanning trees and walking through thorn bushes we came up empty handed.

To make up for it we visited the tailrace below the dam on CR455.

I hooked this nice white crappie right off the bat with a Squirrel hair spinner fly.

we each caught a few small white bass, Emalie caught the largest...

The drum fly strikes again!

The temps are dropping in North Texas and Pickerel fishing is starting to cross my mind.

Leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow.

Crappie Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T06:31:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone is still stuffed to the gill with the gelatinized goodness which is canned cranberries....

My friend Austin was kind enough to invite me to fish with him while his family stayed at Rough Creek Lodge, so on Friday morning I hoofed it down to Glen Rose...

Rough creek is an 11,000 acre ranch/resort/fishing/hunting destination at the northern tail of the hill country right outside of Glen Rose. The beautiful lake on the property is actually a damed portion of the Bosque River.

The food in the lodge is wonderful and the accomodations look exceptional.

Austin's new PB black crappie

My new personal best 2lb+

This place is billed as a bass fishing paradise, but I had so much fun with the willing and fiesty crappie that I would go back just to catch them anytime.

I think we each caught over 40 black Crappie. The fish were biting on the blue bead head Theo's bomber and a couple black streamers that Austin tied.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-23T06:31:00.000-08:00

This Saturday my Dad and I went out and harvested a deer from our lease. I took the backstraps and prepared an excellent stew. The hocks and hams were taken to Kubys to be turned into Summer sausage.

My Ruger International .243 w/ Zeiss Conquest scope

Ahh yes, Quartering a deer in 70 degree weather.....

I took the rack to Flagg group, the same people that prepared my bobcat, so I could get it put on a plaque, my office needs a hat rack...

Last night I visited with Austin and caught a few bass in Coppell

I am heading to Tyler for Thanksgiving, and on Friday I will be Crappie fishing with Austin at Rough Creek Lodge. Many more fish pictures comming soon!

Check out http://www.tenandtwomagazine.com/ and let me know what you think about it.

Contact

2010-11-17T07:06:00.001-08:00

The guys @ Tailwaters said someone was trying to get ahold of me.

My Office # is 214-965-7668

Howdy

2010-11-12T07:00:00.001-08:00

The guys @ Tailwaters put on a kick ass showing of the Drakes Fly Fishing Film Tour Wed night. I and 300 other anglers were in attendance. Prior to the showing we hung out at Tailwaters and enjoyed some brews and conversation. Best fly shop in Texas.

Yesterday a team I assembled shot in the annual Boy Scout Clay Pigeon tournament to raise money for the Circle Ten Council. Seeing that I am an Eagle Scout and my father is on the Executive board, it was my honor to get to participate.

The Shooters:

Tom, Steve, myself and Ross

Tom is the president of the THF, of which I am a board member, and Steve is the Owner of Private Water Fishing http://www.privatewaterfishing.com/ , Talk to him if you want to know where to go to catch giant bass and bluegill on expertly managed private lakes in Texas. My friend Ross shot on the team last year and has even caught crocodiles with me in Costa Rica.

My team did a great job and I want to thank them for their participation!

P.s. (I won a guided fishing trip and a guided deer hunt on a private scout property! Boosh!)

Last weekend My father, brother and I went out to our lease in Rockwood off of 283. Saw a ton of deer and some feral hogs. I didn't see "the deer" so I am waiting to shoot one a couple weeks from now. I did manage to take a 150lb pig, rather small for the property, but one less of those destructive S.O.B.s to roam Texas.

Some shots around the property:

6 Point Buck

Behind the dam

Front pasture

Hope to get some fishing in soon.

I have a couple trips lined up, only a matter of time.

2010-11-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

Now you're gone, won't fall, fall in the fire

oh no, I am lacking, I want what I see

you fireball has rolled away, in shaded valleys

so here I am the creek bed, so here I feel my way in the dark

what wonder, what treasure map, what breaking of day

what stream used to flow here, and now what dusty decay

let the flash flood begin, wash me down there canyon

quicksand pull me in, blow over me solar wind

you're vultures in trees, I know you're out there

you're lanterns on lakes, I know you're out there

you're soccer balls on knees, through your skirt I see

youre legs gracefully, I know you're out there

you're swaying and pleased, I know you're out there

Coppell Oct. 30th

2010-11-01T06:57:00.001-07:00

Fished various neighborhood ponds in Coppell with Austin.

It seems that small and black is the go to over the last few days.

Good tidings

2010-10-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

I took a rare day off to go to the Brazos yesterday. We didn't have alot of luck so we ended up going to Six-O-Ranch. Had a great time.

See the Turkeys?

Six-O

I just found out I am going here June 25th of next year, for 7 days of fishing:

Megalotis Mysteries

2010-10-22T13:36:00.001-07:00

My friend Lance Sent me this after I inquired to him about the strange sunfish I caught in the Sabinal...

Hey Jonathan, I sent these out in an email to a friend who has knowledge of the longear and logperch complexes seeing if he was familiar with these - here's what the big dog told me.

"Don't think it's a hybrid, but stil cool. Texas has some
really whacked-out megalotis, and you should see some of them further down into Mexico... Cuatro Cienegas megs are crazy!
Problem is where do you draw the line? Megs seem to be hypervariable, and even though you get discrete differences by drainage (the downturned opercular flap in the White, for instance), until someone does a rangewide genetic assessment to see where the breaks are, they're going to be treated as just highly plastic."

These are pretty much amazing the more I look at em. I so want to see these.

Cheers,
Lance

Pretty interesting...For more on the variability of megalotis, you can check out a thread on warmfly.com:

http://www.warmfly.com/smf/index.php?topic=541.0

Hill Country River Tour

2010-10-20T12:33:00.001-07:00

I just walked back into the office after a thousand mile drive across Texas.

I ended up fishing the San Gabriel, Blanco, Guad, Nueces, Frio, Sabinal and Medina Rivers. Didn't catch catch and huge fish, but landed a couple hundred panfish and small Guadalupe bass along the way.

So yeah. Pictures.

San Gabriel River @ Georgetown

I only fished for an hour or so because I had an early lunch meeting in Austin, so I only caught a few sunfish.

a trophy bass...

Blanco River

I spent the night in Blanco and fished the state park in the middle of town. Caught a bunch of red breast and a few bass.

My 3 weight got a nice work out, but I wasn't very satisfied with the experience...

Guadalupe River

On my way to Boerne to visit a rock shop, yes I am that big of a dork, I decided to stop by the Guadalupe River State park as a bit of an afterthought. What a beautiful stretch of water. The Geology, the trees...probably one of our most attractive state parks. Sadly after a couple hours of casting in riffles and pools I only managed a handful of sunfish. I didn't see anything larger than a red breast sunfish the entire time.

I arrived in Uvalde around 3pm on Thursday and from then on I was completely absorbed by my Texas Historical Foundation responsibilities. Saturday afternoon I finally found time to take a trip up highway 55, into the middle of nowhere, and began wading below Nueces Lake.

I caught around 50 bass. All but one was under a pound.

The next morning I woke up at 5a.m and drove up to Leakey, where I was able to gain access to the Frio via some property a family friend of mine owns. Had a great time. Water was as cold as a witches tit in a brass bra. Saw more bass than I caught. Hooked what was probably a 3lber, but my 3x tippet wasn't having any of it....

By 10am I had decided to get on the road (it is a long drive to Houston!)

I went east on 377, a great hwy through some of the most beautiful hills in the state. I made my way to the Lost Maples nature center and that's where the fishing really started to get interesting.

This area is near the headwaters of the Sabinal and even there the water was very low in many places, and rather stagnant. Viable pools were punctuated by dry stretches or ones completely coated in some sort of spongy algae. The geology of the area is extremely impressive with giant blocks of solid limestone calving off the canyon walls.

It was in this pool that I finally began to catch fish, and they turned out to be one of the high points of the trip.

I cannot identify this species of Lepomis. It was similar to a long ear and to an orange spotted sunfish, even a bluegill. At first I thought I was seeing some sort of hybrid, but I caught a total of 16 and they all had the same features: Bright orange ventral, extending up the side partly, blue lines, orange fins, vertical striped that darkened, "ear flaps" that were irregularly shaped. If these are hybrids they were incredibly uniform in appearance. I also noted the complete lack of any other sunfish species. No long ears, red breasts, bluegills, red spotteds, greens or even cichlids. I only saw a single Guadalupe bass! Maybe Lance can answer this for me? Lance? Oh Lance!?

I stayed at Lost Maples for a couple hours before I headed towards Medina, and a nearby crossing on the Medina River. This area is great! Two species of bass, schools of rio grande cichlids, more sunfish, what looked like a half dozen golden redhorse, catfish, and long nose gar.

Baby Soft Shell turtle

At dusk I got in the FJ, fired up some Fugazi and hit the road for H-Town.

Good trip.

Thank you to Moldychum.com for posting about my trip!

Another Busy Weekend

2010-10-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday I went fishing on Elm Fork Below Ray Roberts, Not much luck besides a few sunfish and some cats...

Sunday Dad, Sam and I went to Six-O ranch, where Sam caught his first fish ever!

a friend gave my dad this goofy little rod, It did the trick!

After that we went to the Paluxy in Glen Rose and dad caught the best fish of the day..

Yesterday I was out at the Wed Child Golf Tourny, Where I was a sponsor... Got to spend some time with the likes of Bill Bates and Timmy Newsome!

Lots of fun and a great cause...

http://www.wedchild.org/

Sabine River @ Tawakoni

2010-09-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

She got a little powder

She got a little gun

She got a little poison

Got a little gun

Sitting in the bathtub Sucking her thumb

Says, "I don't care about Buddha

Don't care about Krishna

Don't care about Allah

Don't care about anything"

Just sitting in the bathtub,

Sucking her thumb...

Cuz, she's a heathen child

Elm Fork @ Ray Roberts

2010-09-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning I woke up and met Pondbass at the Ray Roberts tailrace.

It was a muddy, windy mess.

Going fishing this afternoon...

Back in town!

2010-09-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been in Florida for the last couple weeks on business.

Did somefishing with my friend Steve Gibson of Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing out of Sarasota Florida. As always it was a graet time. I didn't take a ton of pics this trip:

I have a bunch of new flies to test that I will be commenting on soon....more posts are on the way!

New This is Fly now online!

2010-09-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

This is Fly

Paluxy River, Big Rocks

2010-08-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

The old town cryer says it,

The inveterate liar says it

The pilchard, the bream And the trout in the stream

Babe, I´m on fire

Hit me up, baby, and knock me down

Drop what you´re doing and come around

We can hold hands till the sun goes down

Cause I know

That you

And I

Can be Together

Cause I love you

Depth Charge Ethel

2010-08-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

Ethel is a woman that a river runs through, She is famous throughout the land, People come and bath in her lake, And I do, but lately it's gotten out of hand

Six-O-Ranch, Aug 29

29 Bluegills 1 LMB

Copperheadz!

Small bass

Big Gills on a 3wt!

Bluegill Mecca

Yea Depth Charge Ethel is something special

Yea Depth Charge Ethel is something special to me

Thats Mr. Stagger Lee, AKA Bart @ Tailwaters

2010-08-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Stagger Lee went to the ballroom And he strolled across the ballroom floor. He said `You did me wrong, Billy.`And he pulled his .44.`Stagger Lee,` said Billy,`Oh, please don`t take my life!`I`ve got three hungry children,`And a very sickly wife.`Stagger Lee shot Billy Oh, he shot that poor boy so hard That a bullet went through BillyAnd broke the bartender`s bar.

Sabine River Auguest 27:

6 drum, biggest 3lbs

1 gar, 4lbs

BOOOSH

He said "Mr Motherf%#$er, you know who I am" and the barkeeper said "No, and I don't give a good god@&^m" To Stagger Lee, He said "Well bartender, it's plain to see I'm that bad motherf%#$er called Stagger Lee, Mr. Stagger Lee"

No moon on the water...

2010-08-27T06:22:00.000-07:00

Last night the Mrs. and I did some fishing. Caught quite a few but they were scattered and turned off like a light switch around 7:45.

Little sand bass, not something I catch everyday...

Blame it on the Rain....

2010-08-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

Got a little rain last night, fishign should be good for th next couple days. Last night I did some fishing at an undisclosed location.... Saw quite a few gar and buffalo, but only caught some sunfish and a cat.

Pumkinseed

Longear

Lil Channel

This weekend I will be heading back to Six-O and the Paluxy, or possibly the Brazos.

Cheers!

Making Plans.

2010-08-24T06:34:00.001-07:00

Recently I have become infatuated with the idea of re-exploring some creeks that I grew up playing in. Until the time I was 16, I lived in Duncanville, a bedroom community south of Dallas. My neighborhood was sandwiched between arms of 10 Mile Creek and I spent a good amount of my time down in the creek, scrambling over the limestone, collecting fossils, minerals and the different turtles I could catch down there.

With Austin telling me about White Rock, I am now totally stoked on the idea of exploring some of the creeks of southern DFW.

I'll make sure to take lots of pics!

Also, I will be heading to Uvalde in October, so I will probably be fishing the Nueces, Frio, Medina or Sabinal again....

Weekend re-cap!

2010-08-23T06:55:00.001-07:00

Busy weekend, with an even busier week to follow!

here goes....

Saturday I went fishing around 6 in the morning at my new place on the Trinity. I was hoping for a shot at some gar, buffs, or carp. I was not denied this time!

Even managed a nice Long ear, but not carp!

After that I headed to Whiterock Creek where I hooked up with the skinniest bass in the world...

and a nice hybrid between a long ear and green sunfish...

Around 2pm, Emalie and I hooked up with the family for my fathers birthday party; Lunch at the Flying Fish. I had the worlds best craw fish gumbo and a basket of frog legs!

I woke up at 4am on Sunday, packed up the FJ and then headed south to pick up my friend Tom. Tom is the president of the Texas Historical Foundation, of which I am a board member. I took Tom the "trout bum" bream fishing at Six-O-Ranch, and 20 something coppernose later I think I have him hooked!

Fishing slowed down around 9:30, so Tom being a good sport accompanied me to the Paluxy where we had plenty of shots at some very spooky bass, and where tom managed the biggest fish of the day...

I didn't do so bad either....

I'm out!!

Contest!

2010-08-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

Contest!

When I reach 50 followers I will be giving away some goodies, via a contest. The goodies will probably consist of some flies, gear, or perhaps a gift card. So tell your friends, your moms and that girl who denied you at that party last week:

Follow my blog and you might win some swag.

At the very least you will get to enjoy all the fish porn I post.

!!!

Buffalo girl won't you come out tonight?

2010-08-20T06:38:00.000-07:00

Last night my friend Austin and I visited an undisclosed portion of the Trinity river. Saw a ton of small mouth buffalo, gar, carpsuckers, black buffalo and a giant drum. Will be posting more pics from this place.

My ass got eaten alive by ants, so my game was off....yeah thats it...

But Austin managed a sweet buff.

Good night, heading there in the morning.

White Rock Creek Part Deux

2010-08-19T06:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I came home, kissed Emalie and ran out the door, back to White Rock Creek. I had to try for that River Carp Sucker (Carpiodes carpio) again!

I made it down to the creek and started walking up towards an old dam, off to my left I saw the shape of a bass sitting on the bottom in about 2 feet of clear water. I cast to it and a couple minutes later...

After a couple pix for posterity he swam off back to his limestone lair...

I continued to look around that area in search of a carpsucker when I noticed a fish under some tree roots, I got a look at its rounded nose and carpish appearance so I know it was a carpsucker, sadly, it saw me too and glided deeper into some weeds where Ic ould no longer see it. Disappointed I headed to a larger pool where I saw a number of carp, buffalo and some channel cats cruising. I made a few casts at the carp but they never even turned to my fly. From my perch I saw a nice sized channel cat cruise by, but I fumbled my cast, and in a last ditch I pitched my fly at it with a loud "kerplunk" near the fishes tail...

The cat did a 180 and smacked the fly! It took me a couple minutes to get him in, best fight of the day!

feeling that the catfish had probably spooked every other fish in that pool with its thrashing, I decided to head back to where I saw the carpsucker.

I looked and looked and right before I was about to give up, I see that cute face looking at me from about 15 feet away, sitting on the bottom between two logs.

I cast my nymph in front of him, a couple of excruciating seconds later he glided over to it and bent down. Did he have it in his mouth? Was he sucking it in? SET THE HOOK!

So I did and a good run later I brought the little fella to hand:

As you can see I hooked him on the tip of his nose, which was a little disappointing, but I figure thats close enough to his mouth that he was probably trying to eat it.

The funny thing is that this is the exact same River carpsucker my friend Pondbass caught a couple days before, as evidenced by the scar on the side of the fishes body!

A good night!

White Rock Creek

2010-08-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

After work I headed over to White Rock creek, which runs not 1000ft from my house. First time down there, definitely going back. Thanks Austin!

An old dam?

White Rock creek has a long history as one of the main water supplies for Dallas. adjacent to downtown it is dammed to form White Rock lake, an old limestone quarry. White Rock creek cuts through that same limestone and shale that underpins most of the Dallas corridor from 635 on the east to the Dallas toll road on the west. Much farther west than that and you start to run into sandstone and flood plain deposits.

I went to the creek to catch a river carpsucker, didn't have any luck, but I did see some, as well as a lot of carp, channel catfish, and the various sunfishes and a bass or too. Hooked a couple nice bass on some small nymphs but lost them.

This Is No Ordinary Love

2010-08-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

I don't think Sade had fishing in mind when she sang those words, but when I found myself braving the triple digits in an oven of a tail water on Sunday, casting at gar and drum, the lyric kept creeping into the back of my head...

Sabine River @ Lake Tawakoni

Bass doing his best gar face

Spotted Gar, caught on a nylon fly tied by my friend Pondbass

My first gar! Released to swim for another day.

Not bad for my first real triumph of the day: 5:15am I leave Tyler for Fork, I fish around the marina, find some bowfin, get a couple strikes but never manage to land one. Finally I harass them enough and they depart for deeper water. Needless to say I was disappointed.

Drum, Caught this guy near a little waterfall. Such a beautiful fish! My first Drum

All in all a great weekend!

Heading east

2010-08-13T09:46:00.001-07:00

Going to Tyler this weekend for some business and to see my grandfather. I may go out to Fork early Sunday morning and try for a bowfin....

Paluxy River, Dinosaur Valley State Park

2010-08-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday, after visiting Six-O, I headed over to the Paluxy and waded for a few hours. Caught around 14 small bass and a few sunfish. Had a few surprises.

Hot and the water was low...

Quite a few small bass...

A deformed bass with a very intense pattern...

despite the kink in the lower part of his body he was a fast swimmer and fought hard.

The first red breasted sunfish i have EVER found in the Paluxy!

Six-O- Ranch

2010-08-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

Recently I joined Private Water Fishing (http://www.privatewaterfishing.com/), a members only fishing club with access to dozens of properties around the state. I found out about the organization through my friends at Tailwaters in Dallas, and after seeing some pics of monster bluegills I had to join!

Well, this weekend I visited one of the properties, Six-O-Ranch outside of Cleburne. beautiful piece of property in a hilly limestone producing area reminiscent of the Hill Country, only minutes from the Brazos, Nolan and Paluxy rivers.

Here are pics from my two hours of fishing: around 23 Big Bluegills!

Got to love the Copper nose!

Florida Part 2

2010-08-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

On the 25th of July I went out Kayaking on Sarasota Bay with Steve Gibson of Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing.

1st off, Steve is a great guide. Fun to talk to, easy going, good stories, and he knows the water. His kayaks are super nice and he has great rods which he rigs with skill.

We went out for a morning on Sarasota Bay and had tons of shots at spotted sea trout, jacks, spanish mackerel and lots and lots of lady fish.

Here are the pics!

Check him out!
www.gibbysfishingblog.blogspot.com

I am Back! Florida Re-cap #1

2010-08-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

Howdy Howdy Howdy,

The heat is on in North Texas, and I don't mean just the temperature! I have been a busy bee; with work, family and more work since returning to Texas last Saturday from the sweaty clutches of Florida.

I did alot of fishing!

Mostly on Ft. Desoto beach, which I will cover in this update, but also in a few other areas I will mention tomarrow.

Ok.

Picture time:

First Florida fish on the Fly! A lady fish.

Some type of Mackerel?

Evil looking spider crab!

Nice spotted sea trout from Ft. Desoto

Emalie watched me fish....

One afternoon I went to Hillsborough River state park and caugth a few Spotted Sunfish...a different variety than when we have in Texas...

This sad little bass was the only other fish I could get...

Urchin: the spikey butthole of the sea...

Stingray!

Tomarrow: Lots of trout, a jack and more lady fish! Also! Kayaks!
This weekend: Private water and a river somewhere....

Sea Troutin'

2010-07-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

Just got in from A trip on Sarasota Bay with Steve Gibson of Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing. Pictures to come soon....

Sunny Florida

2010-07-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

I am in Clearwater this week and next.

Been going down to Ft. Desoto beach almost every day with mixed results.

I've caught a few nice lady fish, in the 1-2 foot range, pretty awsome and jumpy. I also what I think is some type of small mackerel, but I am not sure.

There is a storm comming in this weekend, so I am waiting to hear from Gibby about whether or not our snook and kayak trip will be scuttled....

please no, please no please no. Probably won't be able to post pics till I get back on the first. Keep checking every few days!

Welcome to my new readers!

J

Woe is Me

2010-07-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

My little buddy, side-kick, partner in crime, the peanut butter to my jelly, the apple to my eye....Emalie has left me to house sit in Tyler for a week. By the time she returns I will be gone, the Florida, and won't return until the 31st...

I am already having withdrawls!

Fourth of July Weekend

2010-07-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

Emalie and I went down to Leakey, Texas to stay on the Frio and hang with some friends...

The heavy rains brought on by Alex put a bit of a damper on things but didn't wash away all the fun...

The B&B we stayed at...

The Frio River

Rio Frio Red Ear!

Pretty Long Ear?

Frio Red Breast

Swimming

Map Turtle of some kind...

I managed one nice Bass on the Frio, but as luck would have it I wasn't able to get a picture. The river is literally full of fish. Many many good sized large mouths in some of the deeper sections.

On Sunday we left Leakey and started the voyage home...with some stops in between....

The Sabinal River in Utopia:

Sabinal Red Breast

Ended up catching a number of good sized Red Breasts and a couple Blue Gills before we hit the road again...

Medina River in Bandera:

After being frustrated by an unwilling spotted gar for about 20 minutes I landed this feisty bass below the dam at the city park.

After that we made our way to Pedernales Falls State Park and were dismayed to find the water really high and cloudy:

This sad little green sunfish is all we had to show for our trouble...

We spent the night in Marble Falls and made our way to Lampassas on Monday:

Sulphur Creek in Lampassas (it smells like egg farts):

Sulphur Creek LMB

Emalie caught a Lepomis miniatus!

Her second Lepomis miniatus!!! Sweet!

thats a wrap, and here is a scorpion from outside our Room:

California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas or: Burning Freezing Fishing

2010-06-29T07:03:00.001-07:00

Emalie and I left on Thursday afternoon for L.A., after arriving we dined with my sister and her husband and then hit the road for an amazing 1800 mile drive back to Dallas.

Viva Lost Wages!

Damn Hoover Dam

We had plenty of kicks...

Pretty Damn Grand

Everything but the Fruity Pebbles

Emalie made quite the Impact on Arizona

These were everywhere, and awesome

So basically the Paleo-Indians were a bunch of vandals...

Preparing for war!

The Pecos River, near Windy Bridge

What can brown do for you?

Emalie was disappointed that they didn't actually poop gold.

Look at that face....

Why not cliff dive into 81 feet of freezing death?

All in all it was a great trip.

We arrived home about 2pm on yesturday and seeing as we had some day light:

Thanks for the new flies Ric!

Giant Red Ears

2010-06-23T06:09:00.001-07:00

Last night Emalie and I went fishing with a friend on the private neighborhood lakes of Stonebridge, yet again.

A couple bait casters were there before us, chuckin' their banana sized lures in every direction. Disappointed and fearing all the bass were either caught or scared to deeper water, I started pounding the shore nearby.

Let me just say: I was glad I had my 6 wt.

It is amazing the fight that a large bull red ear offers on the fly. This is the Marion Barber of bream.

And a couple of these for good measure

Good bream are hard to find. I am not talking hand sized, I am talking Frisbee hubcap bream. It takes a 3 or 4 years for a bluegill or redear to go from fry to 12 inch monster. They face predation from all angles, but non more efficient than the angler. I don't like to preach. I practice catch and release and think others should as well. But there is nothing wrong with keeping a few fish now and then.

with that said:
If you fish smaller lakes and ponds like I do, and you take home 20-30 "eatin" bluegills every time you wet a line, that shows a healthy measure of disrespect to the resource both for those others who fish recreationally and for yourself and your ability to repeat phenomenal catches of good sized sunfishes.

So, in short, bragging that you took home 40 bluegills for the frying pan every other day makes you look like a douche bag. So stop.

cheers!

Clever Title

2010-06-21T06:44:00.001-07:00

Friday evening I went to Mckinney for a couple hours of R&R...

Managed to catch a few decent bass on a pepperoni-yuk bug and some white deceivers.

On Sunday, after jotting to Dallas for ceramic cats and lambs, Emalie and I went back:

I managed four bass in a couple hours and they all put up great acrobatic fights...

Heading to CA, AZ & NM on Thursday....

Bullheads at Andy Brown

2010-06-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

The last couple days we have been after Carp, following some advice given by our friend Pondbass.

All weve managed thus far are few yellow Bullheads? and one gigantic bullfrog...

This weekend: Mckinney & Coppell

2010-06-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Em and I hit up Stonebridge Lakes, made out like bandits...

We hooked these beauties at the same time

Emalie's new personal best!

Saturday we went to Coppell

Where emalie caught the worlds smallest bass

Right now we are planning our road trip from Los Angeles to Dallas. We have to drive Emalie's "new to her" Jetta home. I think we might do some fishing, weather permitting....

Also, heading down to the Frio over the 4th of July.

Ba-Ba-Ba-boosh

Holy Shat its hot...

2010-06-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

The closest thing I did to fishing this weekend was baking a lemon-pepper Tilapia last night. It is not fit for man nor beast out there.

I'll prob go fishing in the next day or so...till then....check out this giant sob:

From the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler Texas. Thing was like 10 inches tall, 12 long and about 4 thick.

Memorial Weekend: Fork, Faulkner, Coppell....

2010-06-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Did some fishin'

Last Few Days...Part 492854

2010-05-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

Went to a new pond in Coppell with our friend the Pond Bass, who tied me some sweet gar flies!

There has beena change of plans and we area heading to East Texas once again!

Some Goals for the Summer

2010-05-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

I have quite a few goals. Personal, professional, and Fishing....able.

1. Catch a shortnose, longnose and spotted gar.
2. Catch a "respectable" catfish on the fly. One over 5lbs.
3. Catch a Flier.
4. Catch a freshwater drum.
5. Catch a smallmouth buffalo
6. Catch a common carp
7. Catch a Snook (while in Florida)
8. Catch a Snakehead (while in Florida)
9. Catch a "good" Rio Grand Cichlid
10. Catch another bowfin!

Emalie and I are heading to Rockwood this weekend. Going to be fishing the Llano, San Saba, the ranch pond and the Paluxy on the way home.

BA_BA_BA_BOOSH

Slow day

2010-05-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Mabye I am spoiled....
but last night the fishing at our Garland Pond left something to be desired. The water is getting low, the fountains were off, I don't know what it is, but all we caught were a couple bass, and we saw mabye one or two more the whole evening.

Emalie the 3wt princess still beat me

The boga was bigger than the bass

Grindle or Grinnel?

2010-05-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a blast. Heading to Tyler this weekend to see my grandparents, I was able to work in some fishing.....like thats a surprise?

Friday I hit up Tyler State park and managed to land a nice Warmouth.....Finally! He was the only fish I caught, but I left happy.

After Tyler State Park I ran over to Faulkner Park near Lindale for a few minutes. Got into some bream, but nothing to write home about....

The next morning I woke up and drove out to Lake Fork, the Lake Fork Marina boat slips specifically....

Booyah Achieved!

My first Bowfin on the fly. I was very stoked. The beast took an olive sculpin fly and we were off to the races. That fish fought more fiercely than any bass I have ever caught.

Glad I had the Boga:

10 minutes later and not 5 feet away I landed this 2lbr

I rounded out the rest of the day with an ass load of bluegill. I stopped counting at around 42.

not a bad spot...

the next morning I left Tyler at 5:30 and met my friend Dusty at Lake Athens. We had a blast, lots of laughs, a good lunch and a few fish in between.

Before heading back to Dallas I stopped by the AFFC and did my thing....

St. Marcos & St. Gabriel

2010-05-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

On sunday we woke up and headed to the Comol, where we saw fish, but didn't even get a nibble soo...I don't really consider that river fished...I mean...how often do I get skunked? (not that often...)

The San Marcos on the other hand was loads of fun, though we didn't catch a cichlid...

Despite the swimmers and lack of cichlids it was a pretty good time.

The San Gabriel in Georgetown was much more enjoyable. Emalie out fished me with over 20 caught!

Can't wait to go back to the hill country.

More fishing this weekend....West Texas at the end of the month!

I-35 or Die Part 1

2010-05-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Emalie and I spent the weekend in the Austin area with our good friend Abby and her daughter Ashlynn. Much fun, food and fishing was had by all. This is Part one.

Traffic sucked on the way to Austin so we killed 30 minutes fishing on the Brazos where it flows beneath I-35. Caught this nice long ear and had a interesting chat with a guy using seine nets to collect fish.

On Saturday morning we went to the Renegade Craft Fair and bought some cool shirts and posters, having a great time.

Then we got Snow cones

After eating Emalie and I went wading in Bull Creek to see what kind of finny-fun we could find.

The fish started out small

They got more respectable as we went farther upstream...

More tomorrow

1 Weekend 4 Waters

2010-05-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

I love weekends like this. family stuff punctuated by good fishing.

On Friday Emalie and I visited our church pond and had a good time.

On Saturday I woke up and went to McKinney and had a great time with a couple nice bass:

After a couple hours I cruised on over to Prosper and caught around a dozen nice bluegills. I saw quite a few more as well as what looked like a 5lb bass, but the wind foiled my cast, and one hung fly later my opportunity for a personal best was gone. Definitely going back there soon.

That evening we went to eat Pho @ L.A. Pho (formerly Saigon Pho) a restaurant I have been visiting since high school. They managed to mess up Emalie's order for the third time, but we will still be going back for more punishment.
After food we went to the pond nearby and caught around a half dozen bluegills and a bass before it became to dark.

I look high

Emalie's big greenie

Colorful BG

Sunday was mothers day and we spent some time with our respective maternal units at BJs and then at Zizikis ( a Greek place). A good time was had by all and we staved off disappointing our mothers for another year.

That evening I stopped by the church pond one last time and started throwing a mouse imitation. Caught 3 small bass and then headed home to watch LOTR Return of the King.

For Frodo!

Cinco de Koi

2010-05-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

Last night we went by the Church Pond after I got home from work. All the sunfish were up shallow defending their territories from encroachment. We cast zug-bugs, hares ears, half backs and a few minnow imitations and we caught around a dozen bluegills. I also managed a couple bass on an orange booglebug popper, and Emalie managed to hook me in the arm with a number 12 nymph of some sort. Had to push it through the skin and a friendly bait caster cut the barb for me. Didn't really hurt that much, but when she made her forward cast it sure did sting.

Anyways...not really an eventful evening....until....I saw the Koi.

I have been fishing here for a couple months. Ive seen a number of Koi quite a few times, and Every time I've chucked a "carp fly" at them they scatter. Who would have known a popper dropper rig with a "#12 yellow bullys bluegill spider" would do the trick?

Needless to say I was very happy. This is my first carp of any kind!

White Rock Lake

2010-05-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Emalie and I visited Whiterock Lake yesturday evening and caught a few "perch" (a fella kept screaming Perch! Perch! she done caught a Perch! Everytime we hooked one.)

Its a shame there are so many people "meatfishing" this creek for barely a mouthful of pollution laden Sunfish. Oh well, they may have more mercury in them than a rectal thermometer, but they sure are pretty:

And here is a dog:

and another dog:

Mayday, Mayday!

2010-05-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend was busy with my Grandmothers 80th birthday and the accompanying festivities. On Friday I left Dallas and hurried eat to Tyler State Park where I actually managed to catch a couple nice bass despite the rain, as well as a Warmouth, a first on the fly for me.

The first one put up a good fight, wedging itself in some moss, forcing me to gingerly raise the rod with just enough force to dislodge it, but not dislodge the size 12 Bully's Blue Gill Spider that he took.

Happily I was also able to catch the previously mentioned Warmouth. More like a minnow, but still a species on my "checklist"

On Sunday I woke up and after scuttling plans to make a run up to the Blue River, I instead left my better half snoozing and went to one of my usual spots in Garland and caught a couple small bass before lunch.

The once nice pond is quickly becoming a fetid bog, I had to de-gunk my fly before every cast.

Caught on a swimming Nymph

I also managed to take some pictures of the new FJ Cruiser Emalie and I bought recently.

I am more than a little proud of my first new car in 10 years!

I also snapped this pic of my popper/clouser box:

Sunday afternoon Emalie and I went to our church pond and caught a number of Sunfish including this beast:

Obviously a hybrid of some sort, with alot of greensunfish in the genes as well as some Redear?

That's all for now!

Beer, Fishing and One of My Fly Boxes.

2010-04-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

Oh...How hard is life for me, your fearless potentate of panfishing prowess?

Just thought I'd take a break from work to make a post about a couple of my favorite subjects: Beer and Fishing.

Just say that again..."Beer and Fishing".....The way it cascades off the tongue. I think I might actually start signing letters that way:

Dear Somebody Jones,

Congrats for whatever it was you were doing that I decided to use as an example in my faux-letter!

Beer and Fishing,

Jonathan

Ok, I have had my joy-seizure of the day. Here is a bunch of beer I tried recently. All of which I liked alot. Even the New Belgium Ranger (which i sincerely did not want to like) was pretty good. The Turbo Dog by Abita was my favorite.

Emalie went to our church pond last friday afternoon for about 30 minutes. Had fun, caught fish:

What? Don't you take your chihuahua fishing?!

And since a few people have asked me, here is a picture of one of my fly boxes. It holds all my "bream" flies, except for closuers and poppers.

Hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful weather....more posts comming soon!

Paluxy River, Dinosaur Valley State Park

2010-04-26T06:52:00.001-07:00

Whew...
This last week has been extremely busy with work, Texas Historical Foundation goings on, and getting a new car (more on that later).

Sunday morning I roused Emalie and the girls and dropped them off at her mothers house, before heading to Glen Rose to hit up the Paluxy.

I got in the water at 9:30 am and got out around 4Pm. It was a long dag, full of fish, beautiful river, and the occasional slip and fall.

Nothing like a stretch of river all to yourself...

I have fished this area quite a bit and I always manage some nice long ears from the deeper part close to the far bank.

Male Longear with extremely blue fins.

Check out that pattern!

It was good to have the 6wt back, though way to heavy for the long ears, it really helped to cut through the brisk wind.

Green Sunfish
It rained rather recently so the water was high, and as I moved downstream the current picked up and I came across many small riffles and mini rapids.

At this point the fish started to get a little larger, but not by much. I didn't catch a fish over a 1/2 pound, which was kinda disappointing, but I made up for it in volume of bites and the beauty of the Park.

Spotted Bass

Throughout the day I used a series of poppers, small woolyboogers, bone minnows and nymphs.

This was the only Bluegill I hooked

It was a great trip, and I caught a couple dozen fish!

Last Few Days....

2010-04-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

I had a request to post some info on the flies and the rigging I use when I am targeting bluegills and crappie. So I wanted to take a few moments to explain my set up. I originally posted this on the Texas fishing Forums bluegill/sunfish board:

I generally fish a popper dropper rig that I up-size or down size depending on what I am targeting.I will use a foam spider in a size 8 hook, on a 9ft leader, with a 3 foot segment of 3x fluorocarbon tied to the bend of the hook, ending in a nymph such as a halfback, hares ear, or electric blue north fork nymph. I sometimes catch 2 fish at once on this rig.If I am trying to target a mixed bag of bass and larger bluegills I will make the popper a size 10-8 popper, such as a Boogle Bug, with a 3 foot section of 1x fluorocarbon ending in a size 6 Clouser Minnow, or larger nymph. Its important that the leader is mono, not fluorocarbon, I find the flouro sinks too fast and messes up the popping action of the indicator. The idea is that the first fly, the popper, acts as a strike indicator for the dropper, usually a nymph or small streamer. If that is not working, or the fish are really deep, I generally have a 9 foot leader of fluorocarbon ending in a Clouser, shad colored, or a silver Bully's Blue Gill Spider. All of which you can find on breambugs.com

A yelllow Boogle Bug popper and a Bone Minnow, "popper/dropper" rig:

Small Garland bass caught with a Crappie Fly (available at breambugs.com)

Brian Davis, whose blog you can find in my blogroll, was at the pond when we arrived. We chatted, traded flies and had a good time.

Last night I went to Stonebridge Lake and managed a few bream, including this nice Redear, as well as a bass. I hooked what felt like a 3lber, but she broke off at my feet!

Also caught another sad turtle!

I just bought a new FJ CRUISER, I'll post pictured of the BREAM'MOBILE when it arrives....

New Hole

2010-04-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

I found this spot using google earth recently. Its about 20 minutes from my house, located in a neighborhood in garland. It is a pretty unique pond. very blue water, pretty good clarity. The pond seems to be rather deep. It looks like a small limestone quarry that was allowed to fill in. They installed a fountain in the middle, I guess to keep the water circulating, because there is no flow in or out, as far as I can tell. I cought a a few sunfish, and this crappie. Intersting place I will be going back too.

I have some good trips coming up:
The Llano, the San Saba, the colorado and some private water on the weekend of May 1st.
May 15-16 will see me and the better half down in the Austin area. I plan for us to visit to Comal, the Guadalupe and possibly Lady Bird Lake. A few weeks later on the 28-31st we will most likely be staying at a bed and breakfast on the Llano. As summer arrives we will also start to make some trips to the Paluxy, Bosque, Nolan and Brazos. This year is shaping up to be great.

Great weekend.

2010-04-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Between going to the zoo, craft fairs and creepy O-temples, Em and I have been fishing up a storm.

On saturday night we met up with fellow poster from warmfly.com, Brian Davis, whose blog you can find in my blogroll, at the north Garland pond I have been visiting lately. We fished for a while and discovered a new pond nearby that has some white crappie, bass and blue gills. Looks very promising.

On sunday night Emalie and I stopped by the north Garland pond for a couple final casts before home and I caught this chunk. Bet you can't spot my secret to big bluegills?

Emalie caught this fella at the new pond, the best fish at the new pond...

Lucky 13

2010-04-09T06:40:00.002-07:00

Last night was a blast. 13 bass. Another 3 or 4 throw the hook. All within an hour and a half. The ever shrinking Garland pond is HOT. I was using a popper dropper rig on the 4 wt. Black foam spider as the popper, swithing between a blue north fork nymph and a minnie deciever for the dropper.

Popper dropper rig! Two at a time!

2lb+ !

Way fun!

April 5th and 6th at Shawnee Park

2010-04-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

Emalie and I made a couple visits to Shawnee Park earlier this week. Other than fighting galeforce winds and trying to avoid sticking a child with out back cast, we had a good time.

Caught a number of o-k bluegills and pumkinseed, many smaller ones, a single nice green sunfish and a couple small bass.

Nice pumpkinseed

Great color

The upside down crawdad strikes!

I saw this fish leave the weeds and hit about 2 feet from my foot, guess the upside down crawfish is convincing...

Bluegills and coupon sheets

The batman fly~

This afternoon we will probably head to Garland again...

Tight lines!

April 1-5th

2010-04-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend and the days leading up to it have been good to us. The weather has been great, the Bluebonnets are popping up everywhere, and the too-short Texas spring is gaining momentum. The last few days have seen us busy with family, fishing and lots of food.

April 1st: Shawnee park, Plano
My friend Sterling showed me this park originally, and though he caught a number of bass and a crappie or too, I had only managed very small, almost stunted bream. On April fools day I figured I would give it another shot and I am glad I did. Ended up having a good time and caught 7 fish, a couple of which were small Bass. It was extremely windy, but from my position near a cement pipe I was able to make some ok casts along side some lilly pads.

On Friday we woke up and headed out of town in a thunderstorm. Didn't get to fish at all, unless you count a few casts into the Neches on the eastern side of Chandler as a fishing trip....(for the record I did catch a green sunfish!)

Friday evening we spent with family and went to Walmart.....

Saturday we woke up at 6 and drove out to Lake Fork, stopping by J and J Marine to pick up the 15 foot bass boat I rented for the day. Boats or all kinds have their own unique frustrations. I think from now on I will probably rely on friends who know what they are doing, or invest in a small Jon boat of my own....ok onto what I will call "Triumph and Tragedy!"

We used Clousers most of the day, sadly we only caught two small bass, which is a sight better than being stabbed in the eye with something pointy.
Bass#1

Bass #2

As for the Tragedy previously mentioned....I broke my lovely Helios 6wt and had to make due with Emalie's 4wt Clearwater, while she used the TFO 3wt. I snapped the Helios ppicking it up, not realizing it was wedged underneath the casing for the trolling motor. I was proud of myself that I didn't start dropping F-bombs! I Already talked to my friedn Shawn at Orvis in Dallas and he said I will have it back good as new in about 3 weeks. All in all, not a bad time, but i think I will use a guide from now on.

We left Lake Fork around 3 o'clock, thinking we would get a head start on getting cleaned up for dinner that evening, but on the way home we took a small 2 hour detour to a city park we passed while going through Lindale, called Faulkner Park. What a blast, besides the 40 or so bream Em and I caught, I managed 7 Black crappie. non of them where what I would consider keepers, but on a 4wt they were a lot of fun! This was the first time I have ever caught black crappie, so that was a treat in and of itself.

the black crappie were a lot of fun, half the time they took my foam spider rather than the hare's ear i was using as a dropper.

small but fun...

Pale Face v. Crappie

I am of the mind that even if the fish are small, if you catch enough of them on light gear, you will end up having a good time.

After fishing we made it to my aunts house for Pizza and church on Sunday morning.

"Up from the Grave He Arose!"

After Easter lunch with the fam we headed back to Arlington to pick up Pepsi and Bluebell, stopping for a quick cast or two at Purtis Creek State Park:

I was really excited as I pulled it in, thinking because of the side coloration that i had a GIANT Long Ear sunfish, but after landing I realized that it was actually a nicely colored Red Breasted sunfish. I caught one of these last year in the Llano while fishing outside of junction, but it was so young that it had yet to develop the nice adult coloration and telltale extra long "ear". This was the only fish we caught and it brought a nice close to our weekend.

Tight lines!

Good afternoon

2010-04-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

After work yesturday Emalie and I walked over to our neighborhood pond again. 14 fish later we went home and had sloppy joes!

Spot mouth bass?

heading to Lake Fork on Saturday!!

A Good Weekend

2010-03-29T11:06:00.001-07:00

Saturday and Sunday were warm and windy here in N. Tejas....

I went out to a pond in Garland where I had previously caught a number of small bass, hoping to catch an elusive Warmouth...

I didn't manage a Warmouth, but I had a good time and caught a total of 7 nice bass...

This is a pretty neat pond, Brian D. a fellow poster on Warmfly.com told me about it originally. I came to find out about it after replying to a post where he asked for help identifying a fish ( a Warmouth) that he caught there last fall.

On saturday I was approached by a homeowner and we struck up a conversation and he informed me that when they were first filling up the pond they sucked water through a 4" pipe from the nearby creek. If I am not mistaken the creek White Rock Creek, the same creek they damed to White Rock Lake in Dallas. That beign a natural creek, and the Warmouth being a native fish not usually stocked by TPW may account for it being present in the pond. A 4" pipe would make a nice highway for a fingerling Sunfish.

Late sunday afternoon I revisited the pond behind the Church across the street an hooked 4 more small bass and a blue gill.

It is a really nice pond that extends into what appears to be an oxbow of the main creek that runs through the area.

Nice view of a clouser tied for me by Gene Bethea, he can also be found on Warmfly.com

Thanks for looking! Tight Lines!

Damn Bass...

2010-03-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

Daingerfield denies me a pickerel once again.....but I got a bass

Broke in the 3wt

2010-03-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

I went to Mckinny and broke in the new TFO Pro-series 3wt. 7'6" of bass slayin' badassarie!

It was my first time using the popper dropper rig I learned from Don at breambugs.com. Popper was a yellow foam spider, the droppper one of breambugs electric blue north fork nymphs.

Even little Emalie did some damage!

4 bass and 1 red ear, not bad for a an hour and a half.

Aye Chihuahua!

2010-03-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, my crafty wife makes clothes for small dogs!

Go check out her etsy store and outfit your little pup for spring!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ohsomicro

Black Light Fly Box

2010-03-16T08:15:00.001-07:00

It would be awsome to cast one of these into a group of ravers....