Hey look i'm back

Well, long enough of a break huh! I just haven't found the time to post in the past few months but i'm hoping to change that. In the mean time check out some of my catches so far this year, incredible so far.

A pair of 30 buffs in a day

43lb 12oz buffalo

And the best yet. My new IGFA junior world record and new PB buffalo at 50lb 6oz

New PB Mirror Carp at 19lb 3oz

 24lb even Common

25lb Grass Carp

So I guess you could in short say I have been having an absolutely incredible year, I just can't believe in 3 short months i've broken 3 PB's, a world record, and caught 4 buffalo over 30. 

Out of practice

Ok, so it's been a while since i've picked up a fly rod.

Way too long of a while.

I realized today that I hadn't fly fished in over a month and a half, too long when you live in a place that the water's not frozen over and fishing's possible year round. I decided that I needed to get out, and headed to the Library ponds today after school. What I didn't remember for some reason that it had rained a few days before. Once I got there, I found that the familiar flat close to the culverts that I fish so much had leaves blanketing the surface and the water was pretty cold.

I walked the entire length of the pond, then walked down to the next section and continued, flicking a clouser or a bugger into the muddy cold water. I really didn't see ANYTHING the whole time I was there. I just kept walking until I got to Andy brown then just left. Oh well, still felt good to get out and fly fish again. Sooner or later it'll be spring and i'll be chasing the sandbass run and the bass spawn. Can't wait till then but in the mean time I guess I can tie some flies in anticipation.

TFRs is BACK

Well, I guess i'm back too. I haven't posted in almost a MONTH! DANG that seems like a long time. I promise I won't be gone from posting here for that long again. I've made a new years resolution to start posting regularly on the blog's Facebook page too, so start looking on there more often and you should get to see some cool stuff.

The main thing on this post is the TFRs, or Texas Fly Reports, site is back up and seems to be running smoothly at last! The past host site was running ok at first, but we soon found out that the forum software we were using had been abandoned and we started getting absolutely slammed with spammers. We were getting hundreds of spammers a week signing up on the site, and it just got overwhelming. Shannon finally decided that our small band of moderators(basically him and me)couldn't deal with it anymore and recently took the site down and moved it over to where it's hosted now at phpBB. Sadly, we lost all of our past information, all posts, member profiles, threads, everything, but we have the site back and are starting to promote it again to try and replenish the info we lost and get some new topics rolling on the site. Well, with that being said, the site is now back up and running fine, so go sign up and start posting! There will be some big changes within the next few weeks, so keep checking back often!

Go check the site out at www.texasflyreports.com

The hard part

Shannon challenged me last year to take on the "Catch a carp on the fly every month of the year" challenge. Of course this would be the hard part, catching a carp on the fly in December and January. I need to FIND some first then go about catching them on a fly rod. most of them are deep right now but sooner or later I hope things will come together for me. I've made it through May, June, July, August, September, October, and November so far, hopefully I can seal the gap in the next 5 months and finally get the challenge over with.

Another thing is I finally got a decent camera for video, a GoPro! I've been playing with it a little bit, it's really cool. I need to play with the settings and figure them out before I can really start using it but it's gonna be fun having I know.
Hopefully i'll have some actual fish in the next post (lol)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey day everyone! Hope you guys had a great day.

As always, I got to go to Rough Creek again. While we didn't get to stay any more than a day this time but it was still great. Good food and even better fishing. The crappie were pretty active toward the end of the day.

 I found them about 6 foot deep on some stumps right next to the dock.

 Nice one

 Caught these along with a few nice bluegill and redear sunfish. Hopefully this year I'll be able to go during the bass spawn and have a chance at getting another double digit bass from here!

November Carp on the fly

This would be the latest in the year I've ever caught carp on the fly.

I fished LLELA again Saturday and Sunday. When I got there Saturday I learned that they were generating, there was 335cfs coming down according to the website. AWESOME! It really turns on down there when there's water coming downstream.

Picked up the first common pretty quickly, then caught a second one from the slough behind me.

I made my way down to the creek past the railroad bridge and saw a ridiculous number of fish; Carp, Buffalo, Gar, everything. Couldn't get any commitments though, I did have a few very close chases from carp.

Sunday was completely different. This time Jonathan came with me. Not only did we not catch anything sizeable, but no carp or buffs were landed. I caught a 2 inch long bass on the first cast, I seriously thought the fly had a leaf caught on it. Well, I'll be back soon, they'll start stocking trout down there in a few short weeks!

Trinity on the fly

I decided to fish LLELA(the Lake Lewisville dam) today after, well, anything. I had no idea what the fishing would be like down there since I haven't been down there since March. They were releasing a little water, around 200cfs, so there was a good bit of flow for me to deal with. I started walking downstream, plopping a fly into a pool every now and then. I really wasn't seeing much so I made a big move- all the way to the railroad bridge. I walked the mile long trail down to it and fished around it for a while. Caught a few bluegill right before I went under it then came to the other side. Then I saw something that interested me, a creek that dumped in another 70 or so feet downstream from me. I walked to it and saw some bluegill and bass holding on a big log in the water. The bank was pretty high up off the water so I couldn't hit it from that spot, so I started searching for a way to get down there.

I found a worn down trail, I don't even think it was a human made trail. Once it led me to the water I saw another ledge but this time some roots provided me a climb down spot. Then I looked beneath the surface and couldn't believe my eyes. Carp, Buffalo, River Carpsuckers, Blue suckers, Redhorses, and assorted other species scattered all around. I just sat there and stood amazed for a few minutes, watching from a clear vantage point at the vast number of fish below me. I then saw a target, a carp that was cruising really slowly, dropping down toward the bottom every now and then to pick up a possible food item. I made my first cast from 15 feet up the bank on that ledge. I dropped the fly in about 2 feet ahead of the fish. I really didn't expect much, maybe a look but no take, but the opposite happened. The fish saw the fly, picked up speed, and inhaled it. I set the hook, Fish ON!

The fish made a few nice runs and finally came to the net. The weird thing was none of the other fish spooked, I even had 2 more carp try to take the fly away from the fish! Turned out to be a nice little fish, an immaculate mid single that was very healthy.

I went right back to fishing. I had a few spook but ended up getting several more interested looks. Nothing for about 40 minutes, at least no takes that is. I didn't have much time down there since it was a 30 minute walk down and I needed to get back so I gave myself 10 more minutes and decided I'd call it a day after that was up. Then I saw a feeding buff pass by, stopping really close to me to feed. I stuck the fly down in it's path and the fish kept moving toward it. Once it was an inch from it, it's head went down again. I saw the fish directly on top of the fly, so I waited a crucial second. Then, a puff of mud went through it's gills. I knew it had the fly then. Hookset and Fish ON!

This was one of the rare occasions where the buff's fight was harder than the carp's fight by a long shot, it took several hard runs and nearly bent the hook straight! I had it in the net soon though, before my 10 minutes was up.

Not bad! This is the first buff on the fly I've caught from LLELA, so that made it even better!

It was time to walk back so I headed back toward the dam. The lighting was perfect for some pictures so I took out the DSLR and snapped a few random pics on the way back.

A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I'll definitely be back soon before it gets too cold!