30 yo!

Today PB-TFB hit 30 followers! Thanks everyone, keep 'em coming!

Well, That's all I have to say about that...

 

Well, I'll at least put something interesting in this post, Check out the article from Sunday's Fort Worth Star Telegram on Carp on the fly that I contributed to!

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/25/3179645/fly-fishermen-turning-to-carp.html

A cool how-to on carp on the fly.

Go vote in the weekly poll on the facebook page! We only have 9 votes so far this week. The question is "What's your favorite fly reel company?"

Go check out Shannon's new TFC Geocacheing challenge on Texasflycaster, I'll tell you this is going to become big soon. So, go out there and get yourself some free Coyote carp flies!

I sort of like doing random improvised update posts like this, Maybe i'll do them a little more often.

Florida

I was in Destin last week. The waves weren't cooperating the whole trip and the surf was pretty rough but still the trip turned out pretty good.

I  caught this NICE red in the surf on a silver spoon, along with 20something ladyfish. 

I also caught a Mullet in a pond i've known to have them for years. I've even caught several in here. It was 4 or 5lbs

Fought like a beast too.

I had to break out the fly gear at some point so I fished some of the ponds. I caught several hand sized bluegill and a few Largemouths.

A real florida strain LMB

Overall a pretty good trip.

Contest is over!

Texas Buckeye - 26 fish caught - 26 species - 0.00 Lbs
Pondbass - 23 fish caught - 23 species - 63.50 Lbs
Fishing Fedora - 18 fish caught - 18 species - 0.00 Lbs
ChickenWilly - 14 fish caught - 14 species - 9.00 Lbs
bws - 13 fish caught - 13 species - 46.00 Lbs
flyfshrgrl - 14 fish caught - 13 species - 3.50 Lbs
GoFishNow - 13 fish caught - 12 species - 5.00 Lbs
bryan_g - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 4.50 Lbs
sunfish - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 19.00 Lbs
ccabal - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 4.00 Lbs
yakker - 7 fish caught - 7 species - 0.00 Lbs
Texas Megafish Adventures - 7 fish caught - 7 species - 60.25 Lbs
Starless - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 0.00 Lbs
jcabal - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 2.00 Lbs
CrappieBandit - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 0.00 Lbs
ecabal - 5 fish caught - 5 species - 0.00 Lbs
bret - 5 fish caught - 5 species - 0.00 Lbs
OneBugIsFake - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 5.00 Lbs
addicted - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 0.00 Lbs
ghoule - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 2.00 Lbs
marc - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 7.00 Lbs
Luke - 2 fish caught - 2 species - 0.00 Lbs
Denise - 2 fish caught - 2 species - 0.00 Lbs
southlakeangler - 1 fish caught - 1 species - 3.00 Lbs
fallinfeathers - 1 fish caught - 1 species - 5.00 Lbs

Total Fish logged: 215
Total Weight logged: 238.75 lbs
Total Species Logged: 45 


I came in second(Now i've hit all 3 places in the last 3 years) so congrats to Mike on the win! I'll be back next contest.

Carp on the fly...It's on!

Carp on the fly is heating up big time! I hooked this one right on the edge of a weed bed and the second I set the hook on her she shot into the weeds and went straight through the weeds. I had to wade in and rip the weed bed apart to untangle my line and actually be able to start gaining line again. That took several minutes but I finally started gaining line. Took a while to land it but I landed it! 14lb Common!

Fish in the weeds

Fish on!

Fatty

Contest leaderboard update

Wow, it's coming down to the final few days of the contest. The leaderboard is so close!
Texas Buckeye - 25 fish caught - 25 species - 0.00 Lbs
Pondbass - 23 fish caught - 23 species - 63.50 Lbs
Fishing Fedora - 18 fish caught - 18 species - 0.00 Lbs
ChickenWilly - 14 fish caught - 14 species - 9.00 Lbs
bws - 13 fish caught - 13 species - 46.00 Lbs
flyfshrgrl - 14 fish caught - 13 species - 3.50 Lbs
bryan_g - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 4.50 Lbs
GoFishNow - 11 fish caught - 10 species - 5.00 Lbs
sunfish - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 19.00 Lbs
ccabal - 10 fish caught - 10 species - 4.00 Lbs
yakker - 7 fish caught - 7 species - 0.00 Lbs
Texas Megafish Adventures - 7 fish caught - 7 species - 60.25 Lbs
Starless - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 0.00 Lbs
jcabal - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 2.00 Lbs
CrappieBandit - 6 fish caught - 6 species - 0.00 Lbs
ecabal - 5 fish caught - 5 species - 0.00 Lbs
bret - 5 fish caught - 5 species - 0.00 Lbs
OneBugIsFake - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 5.00 Lbs
addicted - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 0.00 Lbs
ghoule - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 2.00 Lbs
marc - 4 fish caught - 4 species - 7.00 Lbs
Luke - 2 fish caught - 2 species - 0.00 Lbs
Denise - 2 fish caught - 2 species - 0.00 Lbs
southlakeangler - 1 fish caught - 1 species - 3.00 Lbs
fallinfeathers - 1 fish caught - 1 species - 5.00 Lbs

Total Fish logged: 212
Total Weight logged: 238.75 lbs
Total Species Logged: 44 


Since i'm leaving for Florida tomorrow today is my last day to get another few species! Flathead cat, Longnose gar, Alligator gar, Bowfin, Yellow bass, Hybrid striper, and Warmouth hopefully today! That would be a feat!

Smallies, Suckers, and Stripers (Oh my)

I fished Texoma on Wednesday after some Stripers(Well, Tuesday and Wednesday, but Tuesday didn't go too well) and did pretty well. We got up and loaded the boat at a little after 4 and were on the ramp by 5. Glad we went, it was worth the trip.

Somehow I picked up my new PB River Carpsucker on a rattle trap fishing for stripers. It fought really damn hard though.

Plus I got a striper. Check.

And I got a nice Largemouth

Then I got into the SMALLIES! Smallmouth are kind of a rarity this far down the lake so it was pretty cool to see a few of these around here.

Another smallie! I love smallmouths.

Close up Bronzeback.

Only bad thing of the trip is I smashed my finger trying to re-adjust the trolling motor. Ouch!

Leaving for Florida Saturday!

Carp on the fly!

Finally hooked into some fly carp action today. I found a lot feeding and pitched a Backstabber Carp Fly at them. Fish on!

Nice bend in the TFO clouser

Not big, but a hard fighter.

Landed a 2nd one, i'll be back after them tomorrow!

Weekly Poll

Over on the blog's Facebook fan page I'm going to start something new- the weekly poll. I'll put up a new poll with a new question each week about anything; Fish, Rods, Reels, Line, Places, and other fly fishing stuff like that. I think it'll add a bit more traffic around here and maybe generate some more likes/follows or whatever. Go check it out!

This week's topic is-
What's your favorite fly rod company?


Go answer it on the blog's page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pondbass-The-FishBlog/218554381487959
and "Like" it please!

Private waters part 2

I tried The FH ponds again a few days ago. Didn't do bad other than the fact that the temperature at noon was well over 100 degrees. Freakin hot! I headed out on the ponds about 2 and fished for a few hours. I didn't do too well but at least I caught some fish. 

I caught a nice channel cat right off the bat, it was like 5 minutes after I set out. I flicked a bonefish bitters right into a shady pocket under a tree and the line immediately shot off toward deep water. Not bad... Not bad.

I caught a few bluegill and the heat got horrible so after a quick thought I headed down to White Rock Creek right  next to the FH ponds. I kind of underestimated the steepness of the climb down and landed in the creek bed with a thunk, spooking a lot of fish and making me have to take the time to check if everything was still in my backpack. I looked up and saw a nice little carp up really shallow in the crystal clear water. I tied on a little nymph and crawled over to the edge of the pool. I flicked the rod and the fly landed gracefully right in front of the fish's nose. Twitch... Twitch...

 The fish took off in a cloud of silt. 

Damn, I missed a perfect oppurtunity by landing it too close to it's nose.

I kept rooting around the creek, picking off the occasional undersized longear sunfish or bluegill. I saw a few more carp but never found another that I thought I could get a fly in front of without spooking it. I headed out of there a while later and headed back to the car. the heat sucked, but at least I landed a few fish. I'll be back at 'em down there soon.

Shad? check

Sunday morning I got up and loaded the boat up and we set out on Texoma on the search for a striper for the contest. 

We pulled up on my favorite point and there were hundreds of thousands of shad up on the point. I turned on the side imaging on the bow and all I saw was a solid wall of shad. I started throwing a 1/2oz rattle trap around the point. The shad were nipping at it for some reason, and before it got to the boat I pulled in a shad that was barely over 4 inches long hooked IN the mouth. I was laughing and grandpa said "That's over 4, isn't it? Well, it was, so I snapped a contest pic

Threadfin Shad- check


I caught about 10 more of these and pulled in a few nice sandbass but no stripers. I saw them busting around me and hooked into a few but lost them before they got to the boat.

We moved, and I headed over past highport. There were a ton of guides along the bank, and again I was seeing a ton of shad. First cast with the rattle trap got hammered, but not by a striper. It fought hard, and I pulled in a... What? 15 inch Gizzard shad. Hooked in the mouth just like it ate it.

Yes, this is serious, I got 2 species of shad in the same trip!


I kept going into the cove. Right in the back of the cove the sonar went nuts, marking big stripers 20 feet down. I fired a slab down to them and immediately got slammed. It broke off directly after the hookup... Big fish!
I tied on another slab. Dropped it down, and BOOM! I hooked up again, this time I fought it up a little, and it broke off. Those were big fish, 20 inches or more at least.

I tied on YET ANOTHER slab. Hookup!

No, mr sandbass, that wasn't for you.

That's about it for Sunday. 2 more species helps, but I have to go back for a striper. Next week will do it.