USCARPPRO issue 18 is live

Check it
http://www.uscarppromagazine.com/uscarppromagazine/Home.html

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1r1xy/ISSUE18/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http://www.uscarppromagazine.com/uscarppromagazine//Blank_files/widget0_markup.html

Especially page 84 and 85. More specifically the bottom right margin. Blog mention! Yeah! Yay, my pics made it!

Outkasts

New Carp stuff came in! I ordered my new rods, Chub Outkasts, plus 2 more regal plus 5000s, some leads, and hooklink. The rods are 3lb test curve 12 foot with the 50mm butt ring. Sweetness

Can't wait to try them!

Bass spawn!

I am happy to report that the 2011 bass spawn has started! Woot!

After a mishap on G-vine yesterday,(My paddle snapped in half!) i'm back in the game. Bass are on the beds at the Drain, and according to Marty a few ponds in Richardson too. I hooked a few today, but they all shook off. There are a bunch of beds all over and I plan to see the bass becoming more catchable as the days go on. I'm going to do a write up of bass spawn stuff soon, so stay tuned tomorrow!!
I'm ready for this

Al Crise Day 2

I met the Fort Worth Fly Fishers out at the Paluxy river for Al Crise Day 2. My D3000 was left in Grandpa's car so I can't post the pics off of that, but I have a few on my phone.I had a great time! 1000 trout were stocked for the trout derby so I fished for the lame little stocker troots for a while, getting my limit to take home for the grill. I started out with 1 trout on an electric blue north fork nymph

 then I hooked something nice, which turned out to be a 14 inch channel cat. It fought hard on my 4wt, but I still got it in pretty easily. Next cast, the line went tight, so I set the hook and my reel started screaming. Not a troot! I fought this thing for a little over 10 minutes and finally landed it. It was a nice 6 or 7lb channel, big enough to put a nice bend in the 4wt.

After that I filled out my troot limit, got a nice Redear and Green sunfish hybrid, a few small bass, and casted at a few carp. I think I got about 16 troots total, with the best one going 15 inches.

After I got out of my waders(I was freezing!) I walked on over to Les, who made me cast his sweet little 1960s Shakespeare fiberglass 5wt, which was SWEET! I want a glass rod now! I learned a bunch of casting techniques from Les, and then Jay "Fishy' Fullum walked over and taught me a few things. If you don't know, Fishy is an amazing fly tyer who writes the creative column for Fly Tyer magazine. He also casts GREAT and is a great teacher. He gave me one of the best pieces of advice i've ever heard when it comes to casting-

"Imagine the handle of this rod is a glass tube, and if you squeeze it too hard it'll break. If you find the right amount of pressure to apply on the rod handle, you'll be able to throw that fly anywhere and delicately drop that fly on the surface wherever you want it"

I had a great time! Check out the event here on the TFF and the FWFF site

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5759970/2

http://www.fortworthflyfishers.org/wb/

**Update! here are the pics that were on my D3000

Great day!

Another WINDY day

Got out to the Library today and got a few. I lost a crappie at Andy brown and caught all but the last 2 in the canal between andy brown and the library. Got the bullhead on a little white bucktail and ice chenille jig tied on a 1/80th oz jig and the last bass on a DBHWF. WINDY again! the temps were in the 70s- finally spring weather!
The total for the day was 2 bass, 1 bullhead, and a greenie.

a little teeny bass

3lb bullhead. Blah

Nice little bass

FAT greenie at the library.

Another E-Mag?

Yes, check out Ten and Two magazine. Jonathan told me about it a few months back
http://www.tenandtwomagazine.com/

http://www.mygazines.com/issue/25231
Spring 2011 issue

The Fish Schtick- Episode 62

http://mauromedia.com/podcast/fish-schtick-episode-62-randy-blaukat/


The Fish Schtick episode 62- Randy Blaukat, a pro bass fisherman on environmental education. Check it.

Windy!

The wind has been insane lately, but that's not that uncommon for crazy wind here in Tejas. The temperatures have been awesome, in the 70-75 range for the past few days and the forecast says there's not any more cold fronts coming!! Bass Spawn! Sandie Run! Maybe i'm a little too hopeful, but this weather is warming the water a bunch.

I got out to the Library today and ended up moving until I was right by Andy Brown in the canal on some structure. I found some today, but it was tough. I got 3 bass, a sweet little 12 inch crappie, and a black bullhead all on a Blue North Fork Nymph.

Sweet little 12 inch crappie

Blah, I hate these things.

Bass numba 2 took the fly so lightly it barely moved the indicator.

 Free bike anyone?

Bass number 3- little feisty LMB.

It was pretty nice considering that the wind was howling at 25mph all day, still starting to feel like spring more and more each day.

Best. Session. Ever.

Yes, I knew the day would finally come when i'd get a new PB common. That and the ever elusive mirror carp i've been chasing for years. Now finally, I can say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! If you've seen the pics on Flickr or on my facebook or twitter you know already, but I got a 16lb 4oz mirror and a 21lb 11oz common yesterday on a long session at Grapevine. FINALLY! here's the post on the TFF
http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5845240/Best_Session_Ever_2_new_PB_s#Post5845240
Amazing!

Houston, we have a problem

239811656
Originally uploaded by Pondbass

I went to the Sandy Lake dam yesterday and walked down about a mile to check out if there were any sandbass moving up yet. I decided that the current was a little strong from all the snow melt(making it good for sandies and hybrids to move up into the river channel but too strong to fly fish) so I waded out onto a gravel bar and made a few drifts with a white streamer. I found that the floating line wasn't getting the fly deep enough, so I changes spools to my sinking line. When I went to pop the spool out, it came out without any pushing at all, but that's wierd for a Lamson. I tried to pop in the other spool and it just wouldn't work. My reel broke completely! The ball bearing came out and the reel unscrewed and unthreaded the screw itself. I took it up to Bass Pro immediately and Gerry fixed it for me, after a lot of trouble with getting the seal undone. Now, why did this happen? grit in the reel, be careful with Lamson's and sand. Also, lack of lubrication helped it continue to unscrew itself. Well, it's fixed now. Time to go back out there!

Scumbags

I'm sure we've heard all about the fly shop theft ring in Colorado by now, and if you haven't, here's a link. A few actually.
Here it is on the Chum

here is is on Angling Trade
Check it

and Finally Shannon's take on it
http://texasflycaster.com/string-of-fly-shop-robberies-in-colorado-no-big-mystery/

There's a lot o bad in the world right now, but fly shops? they've been all over Colorado now.

But that's not what this topic is about.

A fellow TFFer and Lake Fork Guide, Marc Mitchell, went to Bass Pro in Garland to pick up some tackle and stuff today around 2-3PM. He came out and his truck had been stolen. His truck is wrapped, covered in decals and everything, and his car was loaded with tackle, electronics, phones, all kinds of stuff. All stolen. There's been a huge ring of crime here lately, mostly because of it's proximity to the highway allowing criminals a quick get away and also it's lack of security in the parking lot. Something needs to be done about this, really. I'd like to find a way to get the city of Garland(they own the parking lot) to do something about the situation in that parking lot. It's gone too far.

Here's the thread

If you think anything can be done, by all means comment here or post it on that thread.

Video- Boredom and snow

I realized that I've never posted a vid on the blog made by me, so here you go. Boredom and snow, tying clousers and weather complaining

Enjoy

Click Here

The Fish Schtick- Episode 61

The new Fish Schtick is out, i'm listening to it right now. Check it out here
The Fish Schtick episode 61- Ice fishing spectacular


It's a bit cold here. The weather guy was off by a long shot and we have had 6 inches of snow and counting.

Check out Joel Hays' blog- this is hilarious!

Check it out

Yep, that pretty much sums it up

Good reads/vids to beat the cold

School's out tomorrow too(that makes 4 days in a row) so here's some good reading material to throw some heat on this freezing weather. Pretty much the whole US is an ice cube right now. 2 MORE inches of snow forecasted for North Texas tomorrow. Woot...



First of all, the tasty new issue of This Is Fly is out. Check it out
This is fly volume 3 issue 1

Here's a pretty cool article I found on the TFF on shad behavior in cold water. I have seen this before researching the shad kill on Texoma last year. Looks like there's gonna be another kill happening any day now, which sucks but maybe we won't have the same effects as last year's kill- shitty fishing and overall unhealthy stripers and hard to catch bass.
Shad- Weathering winter

Here's an awesome video on grass carp effects on fisheries. These things are bad if numbers of them per acre get too high. I don"t have much knowlege on this topic, but it's interesting for sure.
White Amur- Bass Killers

Here's a nice link for all of you fly tyers stuck inside tying like I am. This site has been one of my favorites for a while. Good flies and a BUNCH of patterns on here.
Warmwater Fly Tyer

and one last one. If you haven't seen MRFC's sweet deals and deep dscounts check it out! There's some awesome deals on here!
Madison River Fishing Company

I'll be cooped up in here all day tomorrow too, so expect a lot of site work being done. I'm going to add a bunch of stuff to the sidebars and a few other things. Check back soon!

Whaat?

It's currently 16 degrees here in Texas, and last night's low was 8. I can't believe how cold it is! Every water body in the area is frozen in some parts and it's just too cold to fish. The high today is 17 and we've been out of school for 3 days due to the icy roads and rolling blackouts all over the state. All I've been able to do it tie flies, a LOT of flies. i've been tying all kinds of stuff

Moreau flies- great for sandbass and crappie.

Guadalupanas

 Plan B's 

Jonathan's amazing drum fly

Scud

14 size 12 GRBH Hares ears

Kinky muddler

I'm going to be tying all day today cause i've got nothing else to do. I'll throw up a few more pics later.

CarpRunner tutorial

It's freezing and snowing right now. In Texas. Insanity.

Of course, the tarp blew off the kayak so it's covered in snow and ice. Great...

So, to beat the cold weather i'm doing a tying tutorial- the CarpRunner, my carp fly. I came up with it on a trip to PK lake, which if you don't know is a deep super clear lake on the brazos river. It is full of carp, and it's deep. Most of the carp were around 5-6 feet deep when cruising and eating. I needed a fly that would het down to them quickly, not make too much of a splash entry into the water, and most importantly catch them. I drafted the CarpRunner and it worked, so here it is

CARP RUNNER

Hook- any 2-3x long streamer size 10-6 (8 is what I use 95% of the time)

Eyes- black bead chain or black lead dumbells

Thread- light is the best- 6/0 or 8/0

Tail- tuft of Rootbeer rabbit fur

Body- Varigated chenille- Coffee/olive

Hackle- Brown or Olive

Rib- Medium Black ultra wire

1. Start your thread near the hook eye

2. tie in the eyes with figure 8 wraps

3. Tie in the rabbit fur tuft for the tail

4. tie in the chenille

5. Tie in the wire

6. Wrap everything forward and tie off.

  The original version has lead dumbell eyes and some lead down by the hook bend to make it fall level but  really don't think that's necessary unless the extra weight is needed. 

Fishing tips

I fish this on a 5 or 6wt fly rod, floating weight forward or double taper fly line, and a 8-10lb flourocarbon tippet. It also works great for really anything. The current species list is Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Spotted bass, Buffalo, Carp, River Carpsucker, Bluegill, Longear, Green sunfish, Redear sunfish, Redbreast sunfish, Channel Catfish, Blue catfish, Black and Yellow Bullhead, Black and White Crappie, Almost a Koi, Drum, and White Bass. It's an awesome multispecies fly that imitates craws, small minnows like sculpins,  and Larger nymphs present in many lakes and rivers. Tie one on and you'll catch e'm if they are there!