Two hard

I have learned limits of the flyrod. Not personal but factual. Water clarity, surface ripples, these are your foes. You are not in Mexico, you are not in the Carribean, you are not in a swimming pool. You are in mud, oyster, sand and brown. Marsh, salt, green and blind. You will not cover water like you used to, you are not trying for all the bites, just the ones that reward your efforts. Although wind can be your friend, untill after taking time to position yourself casting with the breeze at your back it decides to turn and change your options. Wading with a flyrod can be frustrating. A boat most certainly gives you sight. Which is lacking on foot. With stained clarity. And surface ripples.


"Some days you should just stay home"
Or at least you tell yourself that when after hours of futile arm motions and hand spinning leave you with no more slime on your hands than you would have had if you did the same thing in your room. Untill you see something in the water, something in the current. A tide line, a flying signal, a reason to venture more in this direction rather than that. A feeling you should concentrate your repetitive rytham change and monofilament flung gropings where the results are more likely to achieve results that are wished and expected.


"Sometimes this works"
On the second day I found feeding trout and reds in a bending tide line. I managed half a dozen specks and a red which I released. A hard day untill then. And the flurry was just as fleeting and bittersweet. The sun goes down and the tide goes slack. Leaving me standing, waiting for a pickup.


Others, no"
I did manage to not get skunked today. Although all I caught was a "convict fish". On a corkey nonetheless. I also hooked one on a fly I tied but by the time I made the decidion to walk back to the boat to get the fly gear the sun had fallen low and I couldnt spot and stalk easily. I did have a large fish wake behind my fly while blind casting a clear streak but half an hour of that got tiresome. Three days of hitting it hard has taken its toll. Im beat. Hopefully next time Ill have better luck and freash arms. Oh Matagorda, you always catch me at my worst. And I you. You are a fickle whore.

beautiful, cold, sunburn

I'm tired, but I want to post these pics from today. Everyone caught fish. And I am in love with the clear type 1 head, on a floating line, with a 6ft leader, in current, with this fly.


They weren't jumping into my waders. But there were more than a few hard takes and a few short strikes that made the line jump enough to make me stay with the flyrod all day.

wishes and creations

I just finnished some baitfish for this weekends fishing trips. Saturday and Sunday will be in the Galveston bay area and Monday will be spent in East Matagorda. My uncle is going to be fishing with us for two days. I really hope that he gets a few fish on his stringer. I will be trying out my new Scientific Anglers quad tip line I picked up on "sale" earlier in the week. At least I have an intermediate option, at least for a little while untill I decide if I like this line. Im going to flyfish untill my arm gets tired then probably take a break with the baitcaster. Im also going to see about adjusting the boats location to allow me to cast from the bow instead of trying to wade deep all day. It would really allow me to control the belly better in the current as well as allowing me to make some longer casts in productive water. I really cant wait untill I can afford a decent boat. Maybe a 16ft double deep and wide aluminum boat with some pontoons. Not too much:)

red-io

Redfishing Report from SHALLOW WATER EXPEDITIONS on Vimeo.

I dont know what to think of all the new fly fishing videos. On one hand some of them are awesome. On the other hand they can get kinda douchey. This one gets a pass.

I dont know what it is about the color pink that makes fish eat down here in the winter. Maybe its their want for shrimp? Although shrimp arent really pink. More like brown or opaque ice. Ill try to throw different colors to see if the fish will bite them before surrendering to the P. I am tying up some baitfish for this weekend in the standby color. Maybe I wont have to use them, but Ill always have some pink in my box in the winter. Even if I know it might feel like cheating.

Mudfly

This is a variation of a fly I have been tying and trying to turn into a clear water swing fly for fishing around reefs with a lot of current. This fly shares the palmered head like the seaducer but doesn't run with a dual rooster feather rudder and is a bendback. I have given it the name BHR or big head red. Although the proper name would probably be a bendback seaducer This will hopefully be a little more forgiving when bouncing on shell or grass. A single or double mono loop weedguard would probably help out also. I am kind of hooked on bendbacks right now.

Last Sunday I ran down to the local "mudhole" as I call it to try and stalk a lost flounder making boils a little too late in the season. I should call it the stink hole or the dead animal parts hole seeing as I have seen a deer head, hog foot, cleaned duck carcass, and countless filleted redfish, trout and flounder in the little ditch that drains from the road. Although not unheard of, after a couple weeks of the 60-45 weather pattern with rain and cloud cover prospecting back lakes flounder in shallow half brackish water becomes more a dream and less a reality. But you have to try right? I was doing my best to stand and survey taking a couple steps every thirty seconds or so when I noticed an eye on the ground. A fly I had lost while pestering a flounder three weeks ago. Which was odd because I broke it off close to 20 feet off the bank. My only guess is that another fisherman snagged the oyster clump the fly was on and dragged it in. Kinda neat to find. I snapped this photo, cleaned it off and pocketed it. No fish, but what luck.

Alpha

So whats is a first but the start?

Not quite first light, but the end of morning's blue hour. Short and sweet. Green means go.