I had a good day on Fork, Monday. No big ones but more action than I've had in a while. Caught 7 in the two to three pound range on hollow belly swimbaits real shallow, two on 5 inch flutter spoon in 18 feet of water, and one on topwater. Spent the first three hours of the morning wondering if I would get skunked before finally trying it out deep and getting some action. I was just drifting around timber looking for bait and working it under them. Paddling back upwind and repeating.
Thought I might have done better if I'd stayed with it but it was a beating to fight the wind and have to constantly paddle back into position. Between paddling and getting spoon stuck and fighting waves to get it back with plug knocker it got old fast.. When I finally got hung up and couldn't get it back I was done with that kind of fishing as I only had the one with me. Forgot to put the ones I had just bought that morning at Joe Spaits Tackle Factory, in my kayak.
Covered a lot of water fishing shallow back up Little Caney. Picked up a few scattered here and there but finally found an area with shad swimming around on the surface and caught a couple real quick and lost a bigger one. When I saw an alligator come swimming into the same cove... it was like a sign for me stay put. Didn't get a picture as it went to the other side of the cove when it saw me and I figured I would catch up with it later but it disappeared in the vegetation.
The key for me catching was to only fish around the shad when they came near to shoreline vegetation as it didn't seem like they were getting chased in the middle of the cove. There were three or four schools on top for hours. Wished now that I had stayed longer but kept thinking I should try deep again once the winds laid down later and fished the last two hours of light where I started the day.
No complaints today and I'll be back there next Monday.
Had a great time at TRWD Flyfest yesterday. Checked out some of the fly tying demos, and joined the fishing contest on a whim. Had brought fly fishing gear out of habit but left the chest waders. Had put the waders away since the Trout Stocking Season was winding down. While walking around, stopped by the fishing contest booth and learned that an opening was available for the next heat. Decided to sign up when I remembered the hip waders were in the pick up. Kept them there as a backup set of waders, and forgot to put them away. Good thing… ended up using them for the contest. The contest worked in two-man Teams – one fisherman fished for 10″ while the other fisherman waited, then they would switch when a horn sounded. We ended up getting three on the line – one was almost landed but the other two were on the line briefly before throwing the hook or breaking off the line. For the one that was almost landed, had forgot to bring the landing net (it was put it away in the garage already).
Question from one of our Readers asking, “How do we clean and cook trout?” In answer to the question, we provide a summary of the different ways we clean and cook trout! Depending on the size of the trout, we clean and cook them as follows: Stocker size trout (9″-13″ in size) : We cut their heads or remove the gills (“gilling”), and then we remove the guts. Not sure why we opt to cut the head off versus “gilling” them; just seems to go one way or the other from trip to trip. When cooking the Stockers, we season them with salt and pepper (sometimes add Season Salt), and then pan fry them in oil for about 5-8 minutes each side. For larger trout in the 14″ – 18″ range: We clean them like the Stockers but will split the fish (butterfly). We then cook them on a cedar plank (see Grilled Plank Trout Recipe ). For trout going 19″+ in size: We gill them and remove the guts, leaving the head in place. Then, we stuff with lemon slices, onions, butter, and sprinkle Rosemary in the body cavity. Nex
Not sure when we started doing this, but we tend to over-line (go up one line weight) on our 4-Wt and 5-Wt fly rods. I think we did this by accident when we used whatever fly line we had at the time we picked up a new fly reel. So far, have been good with the casting results by going up a weight. That said, was not aware of a debate about this, until I saw an article online by Field and Stream – “ Is Over-Lining Fly Rods Good or Bad? ” For the most part, would agree with Field and Stream that there are no set rules. Would go on to say, “whatever works best for you”!
Not good on PK… spacemonkey: Stripers below PK Bad news there must've been an algae bloom or something because there were lots of big dead stripers below PK dam this morning all the way down to Flint bend. I must've seen more than 50 ! Retrieved from http://texasfishingforum.com/forums
Someone limited out this morning in an hour and a half! Nice! CatfishBilly: Re: Rowlett Creek 2016 Been down here for an hour & a half & we already caught our limit. Retrieved from http://texasfishingforum.com/forums
Starting an impromptu live stream for some ukulele fun and fishing Q&A! Plus a Near Deere Give Away with a twist… This round we are giving away two White Near Deere tied on 1/80oz fly jigs and one Marilyn Monroe Tenkara Fly. The extra weight of the 1/80 oz fly jigs helps fishing deeper spots when the trout are lurking deep. And, the white color is what we had the local trout interested in last Saturday when the temps were well below freezing! To win this round… we wrote down a number from 1 to 100 on our whiteboard. First to guess the number and post in the comments either on this video or on our Facebook Page wins the number we wrote down wins! Addendum: One modification to the rules, One entry per day to guess the number. We are located in the US Central timezone. We will provide comments indicating a Win, else will give a hint to the answer at least once a day. That is first to guess the number with a US address wins! Good Luck!
Another great report from Denison Dam…. texoma1231: Below the Dam at Texoma September 15, 2016 Fished below the dam at Texoma yesterday. They were running only one generator and that creates an advantage for the Texas side and especially for fly fishing. The fish were only 40 feet or so from the bank. I am guessing but I think that these fish were 3 to 3 1/2 lbs. I caught and released 12 total and some could have been bigger but not by much. Water quality is improving but still not where it should be. It will only get better. Fish were very healthy and in good condition. Fly of choice was a small white bait fish. It can be seen in the photos. No weight on the fly. If you are just learning how to fly fish, this is a great opportunity to have some success as the fish are (were)in easy casting distance from the bank. Great fighting fish for anyone to catch!!!! Tight Lines Retrieved from http://texasfishingforum.com/forums
Always good to get reports from the Lake Lavon Fishing Team! They now seem to be on a regular schedule of turning on the water at 12:40 pm and turning it off at 5:00 pm on weekdays. The stripers are beginning to school some beginning around noon, but they really turn on when the siren blows signalling the start of generating. They will stay up busting the top for 20-30 minutes and you can have a lot of fun fishing from shore on the Texas side during that time period because they are schooling right next to the shore. Sometimes they will also feed on top right after they turn the water off. They will hit topwater pencil poppers with abandon while they are schooling! I think the siren causes a vibration in the water which causes the shad to start moving and the stripers are ready and waiting for them. Get up there and have some fun, guys!! Regards, The Lake Lavon Fishing Team. Retrieved from http://forum.lakelavonfishing.com
Made it to the Blue River today to check things out. Great day to go… only one little Bass this round but did get lots of casting practice in with the Switch Rod – 6 Weight Cabelas TLR combined with the Liquid Lamson 4 and the Rio Switch Chucker line is balancing well. Getting great casts and distance with the two-handed Switch Cast now. Plus… always good to be able to fall back to the cast we use when shoulder is hurting from a past injury. For want of a name for it, calling it the “hurt shoulder cast”. Here is a video snippet of some of the casts used today.
We received a question from a YouTube Viewer asking, “What is the best setup for a beginner who wants to get started in fly fishing?” Expanding on the question, we learned they would be fishing for freshwater fish like Bluegill and Largemouth Bass as well as saltwater fish like Redfish and Speckled Trout. Subsequently… Fishing both freshwater and saltwater threw us a curve. At first thought, we leaned toward two rod/reel combos – one for freshwater and one for saltwater. But, then we put our brainstorming hat on and came up with one rod/reel combo that would work for both situations. When we came up with our one rod/reel combo we biased the outcome with our personal preference in fly rods. That is, we like fast action fly rods that we overweight (also over-line) one line size… not sure why but it seems to work for us! (see more on over-lining a fly rod) Additionally, since it was tough to describe in generic terms a rod and a reel, we provided the actual rod and reel we use. Since each
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