Adventures in Port Aransas

Let me begin with a summary of the fishing: the fish were not hitting anything. I landed everything that hit one of my flies. Unfortunately, that was a single flounder. We had as many as 7 fishing, some for 5 days, and I believe we landed about a dozen fish between us.  Two were flounders and I believe the rest were sea trout.  The main thing though, we all had lots of fun. Now for some of the details of the trip.

Paul and I decided to take two days driving down, so not so early Friday morning I loaded the car and attempted to pick him up and head south. Car would not start, tried again and again with similar results.  Battery was good, engine was turning over, but would not catch. I called and told Paul I was having problems and may have to take the truck which would not have been as fuel efficient as the car.  I went outside to reload the truck, then decided to try the car once more.  This time it started and off I went. No more car problems, for me, the rest of the week. The rest of our trip down was uneventful and we saw a crested caracara, a bird I've never seen before.  We saw another on the return trip. We made it to Temple, TX the first night and had an east drive on Saturday.

Paul and I arrived too early to check in, they charge $50 per hour for early check-in and late departure, but we drove by to find it.  We then found a nice little coffee house that was also an internet café. Tom, who had been in Corpus Christi for a few days, met us at the coffee house and we did a short tour of the immediate area. We drove by the pier and went to the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.  They have a nice little museum and this very nice bronze tarpon outside.

 

 

 

As we were fishing up, Lou called and said she was in the condo, so we went there to unload our gear and settle in. After deciding were we three four were going to sleep we went to a nice sea food/pasta place for supper. we were still eating when Lee called and he met us on the parking lot when we were finished with supper.  Back to the condo where we waited for the remainder of the group to arrive. After a few hours, the remaining members of our group, Joe, Sharon and Isabel, arrived and we all gave Sharon a hard time for the late arrival.

 

Sunday morning, the three ladies went shopping, Tom and Lee were enjoying the view from the deck, and Paul and Joe napped until the shopping was done.



 

 

After the shopping was done and things put away we headed to Rockport, Texas and the Swan Point Landing Fly Shop. We were greeted by Peggy who was going to spend one night and fish with Sharon and Lou.  As we entered the shop we were met by the owner with a "there's cold drinks in the cooler, help yourselves". He then spent several minutes giving us the rundown on how-to, where-to and when-to. Most of us purchased a fly or two, and anything else we left at home or couldn't get there and headed out to fish. Sharon, Lou and Peggy headed out together and Lee, Tom, Paul and I went out.  We fished for a couple of hours and, as I said in the opening, the fish didn't bite. We met back at the condo where Sharon, our chef, made one of her very tasty suppers. After dishes were done, the ladies played Farkle and the rest of us relaxed and laughed at what we were hearing of the game.

 

Monday, Sharon, Lou and Peggy went out in their kayaks; Lee, Tom, Paul and I went fishing and tried a couple of places.  The last place we fished was the surf and I decided to walk the beach instead. Tom joined me on the hike.  We picked up a few shells and small pieces of driftwood.  Passed by something that was at one time alive (picture will follow), and on the return saw two on horseback riding on the beach.

 

 

 After we passed by the riders we found Paul at the item I mentioned before.  He was attacking it with pliers, removing the items that were entangled. The major find was a Go-Pro camera.  I don't know if it will work when he replaces the batteries, but the card inside was good and we all watched the video the young man had taken. Here are pictures of Paul and his fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to find that no one had caught anything.  Joe and Isabel had gone to Corpus to tour the USS Lexington.  That night we just relaxed and talked about our day. Forgot to mention that we saw

a young man who was trying to dig out the car his sister got stuck on the beach the night before. After Lee helped clear some sand from the chassis, we all pushed and got him on his way.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday Lou and Sharon were supposed to go out with a guide, but the weather was so bad, he asked to put the trip off.  Their new plans were to ride along with him Thursday afternoon to scout and fish a little, and then go out for a longer trip on Friday. Because of the cancellation, they joined the men on shore fishing.  Joe stayed at the condo and Isabel took my car to explore the island.  We loaded into Lee's car and his battery was dead.  Lou helped Lee jump start his car and we went fishing.  Tom and Lee dropped the rest of us off and then went to replace the battery. Everyone except Paul and I caught fish that day. Back at the condo, we all played "Catch Phrase".  Had lots of fun and laughs.

 

Wednesday was a non-fishing day. Joe, Tom, Isabel and I went to the King Ranch Museum.  Learned a lot about the family and, from photos by Toni Frissell, about the cattle drives and history of the family. Paul and Lee went to the Lexington. Lou and Sharon went to the aquarium in Corpus..

 

Thursday, all of the people who had been fishing, except me tried again. The ladies with their guide, the guys were shore fishing...no fish were caught. The ladies reported seeing redfish, but the fish had tight lips. Isabel and I drove to Corpus where we toured the Art Museum of Southern Texas, the Texas State Aquarium and Heritage Village.  The art museum has a wonderful display of Ansel Adams photography, which in itself made the day very good.  Heritage village is a group oh homes from the late 1890's to early 1900's that had been moved to one location.  The aquarium was small, but well arranged.  Isabel held a sea urchin and touched a small shark and ray.  I had a laugh when the ray, that was relaxing moved at her touch and she jumped. I had a great day.

 

 

 

 

 

Lee left very early Friday morning to head back to the Springfield area. Lou and Sharon went with their guide.  Once again they saw redfish, but couldn't get them to take anything. Among the wildlife they saw were five whooping cranes.  They said they would be glad to use their guide again. Tom, Paul and I tried one last time and I finally caught a fish.  The only fish caught that day.  That night we ate out and went home early to pack. Lou and Tom were extending their stay in Texas by visiting friends, Sharon, Joe and Isabel left to once again drive all the way home and Paul and I decided to take two days again. Paul and I also decided that before we left Texas, we needed to stop by Whataburgers.  It was good, but too much meat. Saturday was not a bad drive at all. Sunday there was ice and snow along the way.  We saw a couple of cars that had gone off the road.  Once we got to the turnpike, it was easy going.  The only really bad spot I hit was in Ozark, but we all got to our destinations okay. This was a great group to spend time with. Below are the only two fish pictures I have.  Tom and his sea trout and my flounder.

January Fishing, etc.

January turned out to be a busy month. On the first, I broke from my usual fishing to swimming with the fish at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. My sister, nephew who works at the aquarium and my grandson joined me in this experience.  They all seemed to do better than I did. I had a difficult time getting used to the mouthpiece and breathing through my mouth.  After just a few minutes, I swam back to the platform to adjust this and noticed the very large shark swimming toward the same area...yes their was a barricade between us, but I still took notice. The rays kept swimming toward us and I kept trying to avoid them.  The fish were beautiful, especially the flying gurnard. We followed this up with a visit to Universal Studio and Hogwarts. Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss were great. Unfortunately we got caught in the near blizzard on the way home and had to spend an extra night on the road.

The weekend after I got home Tri-Lakes Fly Fishers had a program with John Berry scheduled. Wayne drove down for the program and we both enjoyed the Saturday with John.  On Sunday Wayne and I fished Bennett Spring and on Monday we fished Roaring River before attending the Tri-Lakes meeting Monday night.  Both days fishing were slow, the water a little high and dingy.  Wayne outfished me both days, but we had a good time.  We saw two eagles on the Roaring River trip and a king fisher at Bennett.

This last Saturday, MTFA had a flying event at the Nature Center.  We had about a dozen tiers and lots of visitors stopped by to talk. Some of these visitors tied their first flies and, hopefully, we've shown others some of the joys of our sport. Sunday several members of SMFF met at Roaring River for lunch.  Most of fished either before or after lunch or both.  I had a much better day than the last visit.  Most of my fishing buddies know I love soft hackles, but this time I only caught one fish on a soft hackle. I was fishing a tandem...a caddis green soft hackle followed by a tab G-bug. A good new-bad news item, I ended with the same two flies I started with.  The goods news is my knots were properly tied and I lost no flies to bad knots; the bad news is I didn't catch enough fish to ruin any flies. Had one small fish of about 10 inches, a few in the 12-13 inch range and 2 about 16-18 inches. One of the larger fish was beautifully colored.

It looks like February will also have lots of fishing related events. What I'm really looking forward to is the end February trip to Port Aransas, Texas with about 6 fishing buddies to try the salt water of the Texas coast.

A Fall Day in the Ozarks

Beautiful earth tones, bronze, orange, yellow, rust, the evergreens, as their name implies, adding green and the occasional splash of a bright red; that was the view on an early morning drive to Lake Taneycomo. A perfect start to a day on the water with friends from home. Meeting up with Marty and Jim by what use to be called the Rocking Chair Hole. Of course with the storms of the last few years, the only hole(s) seem to be the ones in front of and behind the large rocks that where put in the water to trip unsuspecting waders.  So far I've avoided that, but I have a feeling my day will come.

I'd love to report that the fishing was great. Although we all caught fish, in general it was slow.  I did have a few times when I had takes on two or three consecutive casts.  The fish were a decent size, probably only one keeper and he was in the under 12 inch class. Some of the fish had good color, too bad I'd left my camera at home and my phone in the truck. I know that I don't have to say this for my friends...soft hackles with a g-bug dropper.  Most of the first fish were on the dropper and then later, most on the soft hackle, so go figure.

As Jim said, it was a beautiful day to be on the water and then we caught fish to make it even better. To top it off we went to Dana's and were met by Cheri and Jan for a nice lunch.  Good to see friends from home and get to fish with them.

Baby Tarpon fishing, Campeche and Edzna

Tarpon do love to jump!



Standing on the casting platform, fly in the left hand, rod ready to cast.  Sam, our guide, suddenly calls " ten o'clock, mangroves,....more right....closer...strip, strip, strip." That's just the beginning of fishing for juvenile tarpon in Campeche, Mexico. Its an exciting, tiring adventure.

When I was in the army, one of the acronyms that was often used and appropriate was FUBAR. I usually don't use the words that is used for, but, unfortunately, it would be a very accurate description of my casting on this trip. I had practiced with my 8 weight rod and was casting 40 to over 50 feet with it and feeling quite good. But when I used the stiffer, saltwater rod with 30 and 40 pound leader and tippet, I lost all of my timing.  Was it the excitement, the feeling that I had to hurry, nervousness from the situation? Whatever it was , my casting was absolutely terrible. It reminded me of going to dances with Connie.  I could sit and listen to the music, keeping perfect timing all evening long, but get up to dance and all of my timing and coordination  to leave. Steve, Sam and Alex all gave me pointers, and occasionally, I get a good cast, but I sure need to work on something.

Each day we were picked up by Alex who drove us to the boat. We then took off in the dark with Sam holding a flashlight for our running light. Most other boats were using the same system. The first day I was first to fish and we saw fish, but my casts either spooked fish or were too short. Steve fished second and had two tarpon strikes.  The first one was missed due to a "trout" set.  With tarpon, one needs a strip set to the hook properly. The second miss was just that, a miss.  It looked like he had done everything correctly. Later in the afternoon, Steve caught a nice snook. We were met back at the dock by Alex who offered cold beers to both of us. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but that one sure tasted good.

The second day we went much farther then the previous one. A small flock of flamingos flew over us on the way. It was still too dark to see much color but their shape gave them away. Later in the day a larger flock flew overhead and they were very colorful. Steve was up first and when we got to a "river" the tarpon were rolling everywhere. The tarpon seemed to enjoy toying with our flies. They were hitting and moving them with their head, playing with the flies and teasing us. After a few misses, Steve hooked and landed a tarpon.  It wore me out just watching the fight. With Steve's help I managed to entice a couple of strikes, but tried the old "trout" set. I finally got a decent cast to one, set the hook properly and played the fish for a few jumps.  I thought I had him whipped, but one more leap and my hook was loose. The fish was unhooked and I was hooked, to this kind of fishing. Not too bad of a day: Steve had four jumpers and boated two, I had two jumpers. After going back to the hotel we walked to the central market and then to supper. 

Jumping Tarpon

Steve's Tarpon

The third day was a side trip to Edzna, a visit to one of the forts, and supper with Alex and Eduardo. More on that later.

The third fishing day was another good one, but no tarpon were boated. I went back to my "trout" sets and, of course, missed them.  Steve had two jumpers, but mishaps loss both of them. The first one Steve had next to the boat, grabbed the leader making it a "caught" fish when it tried another run.  Unfortunately, Steve was kneeling on his line and when it went tight the leader broke. The other fish was a real fighter and just about took Steve into his backing. After several jumps, probably at least seven or eight, the fish made another long run, jumped and threw the fly. When the line was retrieved and the tippet and fly inspected, Steve found that the hook had been bent by the fish.

The point has been bent downward.

Fishing day four was by far the slowest.  I managed one cast to a rolling tarpon that Steve and I spotted. It was probably one of my best casts of the four days.  Problem...what neither of us saw was that this tarpon was on the far side of a large school of tarpon.  As my line sailed over  the school to my target, the water boiled from the school scattering and of course my anticipated tarpon with them.
Steve caught a small snook.

The trip to Mexico was my first and I really had a good time. I would go back after I practice casting with a saltwater 8 weight.  Just hooking the tarpon and having them make their jumps is so exciting.  It was a good trip and everyone was pleasant to be with and fish with.


The crew at Marganzo's: Steve, Alex, me and Eduardo.

 Steve was my traveling companion, Alex is the owner of Campeche Tarpon and Eduardo is an excellent fly tier and tarpon enthusiast. We met at Marganzos where they ordered a Mexican style supper for us.  Vet entertaining evening discussing tarpon and flies.

That's all the fishing talk, but for my non fishing fans I want to include a few pictures of the Mayan ruins at Edzna and a few pictures of Campeche. We fished Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday we were met by Alfredo who works for the Bureau of Tourism.  I believe I heard that he helps to train other tour guides. Steve had requested him as our guide Wednesday and as our driver to and from Cancun. Alfredo has wonderful English, and knows his Mayan culture very well. We practically had both Edzna and the fort to ourselves.  Here are a couple pictures of Edzna.

There are two forts like the one we visited.  One at the north end and one at the south end of town.  They were built to defend the city from pirates.  Alfredo started naming pirates who attacked the city and about the only two that I know and he did not name are Captains Hook and Jack Sparrow.

Draw bridge over the moat. Beyond the moat is a high curved wall that led to the bridge.

Empty moat and entrance to the fort.

A few pictures of the cathedral, town and waterfront.

This and the picture above are in the garden courtyard of the cathedral.

Part of the old wall around the city.

There is artwork everywhere.





Sunfish Heaven Revisited

Watching my grandson again last week, so I figured I'd be able to visit the pond for some more fishing.  When I asked the Tri-lakes members to suggest warm water flies for the boys at Good Samaritan Boys Ranch to tie this fall, Paul made a few suggestions.  One that he said we should tie is the Briminator.  I don't have any Pheasant feathers, so I made a substitution to get almost the same look and, I hoped, action. I took my two Briminators with me last Friday morning to give them a try.

When I unlocked and opened the gate to my sister's place, I was greeted by a couple of cows. I didn't know if they had broken through the electric fence or if my brother-in-law had moved them over.  Either way, it meant they had the same access to the pond as I did. I drove past their yard and saw the gate closed, so I now knew there were cows in the same pasture as the pond I was going to fish. And, as I found out later, in the pond.

I decided to try the Briminator first, so I tied one on and walked down to the water. I started at the closest access point and caught a few sunfish. I moved over to the dam and caught a few more.  A few of the cattle decided they wanted to cross the dam, but after spotting me and the long rod, they watched me a while, decided they wanted to avoid me, turned around and walked to the other side of the pond.

Two or so hours of fishing and my Briminator was terminated. My thoughts about the fly, the fish and the pond are: I caught a lot of fish including two bass, but all small ones. There were several times when I had to get out the hemostat to remove a fly taken too deeply.  That wasn't a problem with the poppers I used two weeks ago. Instead of a six weight, I used a four weight that I built.  It was a real nice choice because none of the fish caught were very big.  The fish didn't seem to have any fight to them even on the lighter rod.

Sharing the pond



Sunfish caught on a Briminator

 

The next evening I decided to try my luck again and I thought I'd mix up the flies a bit. The fishing was the slowest this summer. All of the takes except one that I missed were easy takes, nothing hitting anything hard. I caught three bass and a few sunnies. The smallest bass, all of about eight or mine inches, gave me the best time as he broke water with nice jumps three times. The flies I used were a popper, a Briminator, and a bug-z.  I caught fish on all three.

Sunfish Heaven

Having no plans for the Fourth of July, I decided to head to my son's house in Chamois and fish my sister's pond less than 5 minutes from Randy's. If anyone else fishes this pond, they are sneaking in and doing such when no one is around.  So its about as close to my own personal fishing spot as possible.  My plan was to fish for a couple hours, twice a day, starting at about 6 AM and then again 6 PM.

I'm very fortunate to have an upcoming trip with Steve, author "Campeche's Baby Tarpon" in the latest issue of Flyfisher to fish for these fish he described. To fish for these baby tarpon I'll need to use an 8 weight rod, which I seldom cast.  So, even though I've been practicing some with my 8 wt., I decided to take it to the pond and cast on the water.  Armed with the 8 wt. with a helmet head sculpin and a 6 wt. with a Wilson Bug-Z, I decided to attack the sunfish and bass in this little pond. First I used the 8 wt. and to my surprise started catching sunfish. Yes, this is a lot bigger rod than needed, but again I need the practice casting a heavy rod.  When I got tired of the heavy rod, I changed to the 6 wt. and caught sunfish and largemouth of this as well, yes, I'm aware that the largemouth is also a sunfish. That 6 wt. really felt light after the 8 wt.



Sunfish caught on a Wilson Bug-Z
 

I returned to the 8 wt. and my sculpin pattern was eventually destroyed, so I tied on a large deer hair popper.  One bass that took this barely was able to get it in his mouth and the sunfish were only able to move it about. 

Last Monday, Sharon hosted a "popper" party at her and Joe's house.  She, Lou, Tom and I met before our Tri-lakes Fly Fisher meeting and tied poppers.  Those I tied that night, along with a couple I already had were my weapon of choice the other several times I fished. The fish loved them. I don't normally use poppers, but that may change.  As I said, the fish loved them, any that I threw to them.  After these sessions I can understand why Tom likes them so much.

I fished am and pm on both Thursday and Friday, tied some flies and went to a local church's fried chicken dinner on Saturday, then fished again Sunday AM.  Here are a few more pictures of the fish and the pond.  There is probably a different popper in each picture and I believe I'll have one more with a Bug-Z. 

One of Tom's poppers
 

Love the color this one shows
 

A Bug-Z fooled this one

Going back to Randy's the end of this week to watch Rowan, who informed me he wants to fish.  I just may forget the worms and give him a flyrod with a popper tied on.  Fishing this nice little pond early and again in the evening was very nice.

Back in the Water Again

Man, its been awhile, both trout fishing and posting.  I did go with the MSU class in May, but that was mainly helping the students.  Fished Rex's pond and caught some fantastic blue gills.  Helped the boys at Good Samaritan Boys Ranch, but again, that was mainly helping.  Took Rowan fishing a couple of days last week; he's casting a Zebco pretty well and he caught a few blue gill.

I did try a new fly by Terry, he's calling it a Bug-Z.  I caught blue gill and bass on it at the boys ranch and a nice crappie when fishing with Rowan.  Should have tried it today at Taney, but I never.

Fishing buddy Russ and I wanted to fish a tail water the last two days, but everyone was running water.  Today, Russ couldn't go, but the generators were off this morning at Taney, so off I went.  As I approached the 248/165 intersection I saw eight deer standing on and near the shoulder of the road,  Slowed way down, didn't want to collide with one, much less eight.  Fortunately, they saw me, turned and ran back into the woods. Drove down to the parking lot by the outlets and geared up.  Realized my net was back in the garage.  Not a big deal unless I hooked a really large fish...no suspense, I did not. 

As I approached the water I noticed that the spot I like to fish was available, so I was happy to get it.  On about my third cast I got a snag and broke my hook, I was fishing an extra fine one.  Tied on another, just a little heavier and on the first cast I found the same snag.  I can be a slow learner.  This time the tippet broke.  Retied, slightly adjusted my approach and got a beautifully colored trout about 14 inches long.  This guy must have thought he was a wild one as he jumped at least 7 or 8 times.  Brought him to hand an released him.  This trout and all of the other brightly colored ones were very slender,  The duller ones actually seemed fatter and healthier. One bad experience from not having my net.  If you are  fishing a dropped be sure you are clear of the lead hook when you release the fish on the other.  I wasn't and the fish really set the hook well in my finger.  Sure glad I fish barbless hooks. This one was in deep enough that it still took some effort to remove. The blood on the fly may have helped because I started catching fish on that fly.

There was a father and son fishing just downstream.  They had just one rod and the father was trying to help his young son how to fly fish. I could tell the boy was getting bored, he wasn't getting any hits, so I told his dad about Mountain Spring.  He said they may try it before they head back to Tulsa.

Not too many fish, but standing in the cool water with the fog surrounding me really felt good.  I finished a good day by visiting Dana's for lunch and then buying a 2013 Silverado Crew Cab.