Short & Sweet

Not a whole lot to report today. Ran out for a few hours mid-afternoon to chase some gills.

Anything prettier than a longear?

A nice copper nose bluegill. 

Lots of fun on on the 3wt, 4lb tippet

 and a size 14 woolly bugger.  

Tarpon Time

Several years ago I made a trip down to Port Isabel, Texas to chase tarpon and snook. I fished with my buddy Jacob Reaves. We fished for 5 days and went 4 for 9 on the tarpon and 1 for 3 on the snook. We fished the Brownsville shipping channel for snook in the morning and then went out to the jetties in the afternoon looking for tarpon. I still remember the first morning out, we ran up into the shipping channel and shut the boat down on a little point. I started fishing while Jacob was getting everything situated in the boat. Within my first few cast a damn nice snook came up right at the boat and ate my swim bait. He turned diving to deeper water and doubled over my rod. It all happened so quick and then the next thing I know the swim bait comes flying out of the snooks mouth. It was all over just as quickly as it started. Not sure exactly how big this fish was but he was surely over 10lbs maybe in the mid teens. Defiantly a  fish that makes you sick to your stomach because you didn't land him. Over the course of the remainder of the trip I lost another nice snook due to a poor hook set and finally landed one on the last day. Jacob worked hard to make sure I got a snook before the trip was over. We did really well on the tarpon and hooked several big fish that were fought hard till hooks or leaders broke. We caught 3 tarpon to 100 lbs and one that was roughly 150 lb fish on the last day. Not to many people land a Texas snook and Tarpon in one day. Hopefully in the near future I'll make another trip down there and chase these fish with the flyrod. Landing a Texas snook and Tarpon on the fly would be a great challenge. 

Caught several blacktips also. 

Tarpon kick ass

Another nice tarpon

A nice snook that I finally landed on the 5th day

An awesome tarpon also landed on the 5th day 

Super Moon and Super Gills

The full moon on the night of June 22nd will be the largest full moon of the year, as well as the closest the moon will come to our planet in all of 2013. At this point, the moon will be 221,824 miles away—30,000 miles closer than at its furthest point. The super moon can appear as much as 14% larger in the sky and 30% brighter than at minimum size and brightness. The closer the time of the full moon is to the time of perigee, the larger and brighter the moon will appear with this month’s full moon and perigee come within one hour of each other. The moon of this size and proximity will not come again until September of 2015.

I was loading up the kayak by 4:30am and headed to the creek. Getting on the water well before daylight to fish the super moon. I paddled to some beds that I fished in last Sundays posting. I got the kayak anchored up and started casting into the moonlit darkness. Within just a few cast I was hooking up with fish. Nice solid bullgills that were putting a nice bend in the 3wt. I hooked into something that was to much for the 3wt to turn and as it made its run to deeper water the hook pulled. The fishing was on fire, with solid gills coming to hand with every few cast. The catching continued till the sun got up good and then the fish started to shut down. I caught a few more over the next hour and then decided to call it a day and headed back to the house.

Lots of solid fish all morning.

A nice dark gill

A scotch double

Lots of these guys bellowing before the sun 

came up this morning.

50 Miles Out

      Offshore flyfishing is about as fun as it can get. You never know what your going to catch or what is going to take your catch as a snack. I'm not talking about going out and trolling and bringing palegics into the teasers. Which, don't get me wrong, is on the bucket list for sure.

     Scott and I have made several trips offshore with Capt. Chip Meyers and have had some great days fishing rigs and shrimp boats 50+ miles in the Gulf of Mexico. Typical equipment is 10-12 weight rods with 500-700 grain sinking tips. You'll want lots of backing and a solid reel that can handle blistering runs from some of the fastest fish in the ocean. Lots of chum is involved and its not a matter of when the fish will show up but how many different species of fish will be showing up. Scott and I have caught a number of species including; kings, sharks, red snapper, bonitos and chicken dolphins (just a term given to juvenile dolphin/dorado/mahi mahi). We are headed offshore again this year and I'm hoping to get into some amberjack, more kings and hopefully some cobia. If you want to have some fun and take a flyrod where few have gone before, give bluewater flyfishing a try and watch your knuckles.

What your looking for. 

One of the best eating fish, coolest marked, and very aerobatic once hooked.  

What more could you ask for? 

Maybe a 50 lber

 Scott with one of many bonito caught that day

Great fighting fish

Scotts' chicken dolphin

Fun day with these guys

Scott and I doubled up

Snack time for Mr. Shark

 Damn! What happened to my fish.
Is this like when a cat leaves a mouse head on your door step?

GillZilla

Happy Fathers Day Everyone!

I sneaked off for a few hours this morning before everyone woke up. I loaded up the kayak and headed to a local creek by the house. This creek is loaded up with quality gills and bass. It didn't take long for me to hook up with the first fish of the morning a nice bluegill. The bluegill was pulled off the edge of a thick clump of hydrilla and fell victim to a size 14 olive woolly bugger. I continued drifting in the kayak as the slight breeze  pushed me down the shoreline. I was catching fish fairly often as I worked my way up toward a bridge that crossed the creek. As I glanced into the water I could see a huge nest of gills that was covered in bull gills as the kayak glided over the nest the fish spooked and bolted to deeper water. I backed the kayak out of there and anchored it up about 20 feet from the edge of the nest. The gills quickly returned to protect the nest and that they did. For the next 30 minutes they smashed the woolly bugger within seconds of it hitting the water. It was an awesome morning on the water that came to an end to soon, but needed to get back to get Fathers Day started with the family.

GillZilla

This fish was 10" long by 6" deep.

First fish of the morning

Lots of solid fish

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Likes

Win this $25 gift card to Living Waters Fly Shop . Just go and LIKE 2FlyFish4 Facebook page! Also make sure to give Living Waters Fly Shop page a LIKE also, they are always posting great photos of recent Hill Country fishing, fly tying and have great stuff going on at the shop. Thanks

Panfish Flies; Tied By Matt Bennett

Matt Bennett ties some great flies. I was running low on some panfish flies and was in dire need of getting the fly box restocked. Matt works at Living Waters Fly Shop and he firmly believes fly-fishing and fly-tying go hand-in-hand.  Matt couldn't see himself just doing one or the other.  Proper material selection, hook style, and hackle color are a few things that keep him up at night.  Matt really gets into seeing the “whys” behind other tyers’ choices of materials in flies, and adapting the patterns to work on is home waters in the Texas Hill Country. I had Matt tie up some Rio Getters, that are suppose to be deadly in Rio Grande Cichlids. We don't have any Rios up here in Dallas, but look forward to using this nymphy fly the next time I am in New Braunfels visiting the in-laws. There are lots of Big Rios in the San Marcus River that are going to get their lip pierced by this fly. In the mean time it should be a great fly to use for bluegills, longears, green sunfish, warmouth, and red ear sunfish and all those other feisty fish that are referred to as panfish. He also tied me up some Wooly Buggers and some Llano Critters. The Llano Critters should be a great smallmouth fly and I look forward to using the next time I get to head up to the river. Matt also has a great blog you should check out; FLY GEEK. You can contact Matt through his Blog or at Living Waters Fly Shop if you want him to tie you up some flies. You wont be disappointed with his work. Looking forward to putting these flies to work this weekend.

The Groceries 

 The Rio Getter

This fly in a size 6-8 would be a great carp fly, IMHO.

Where It All Began

I was probably 10 years old when I bought a 5wt Cortland rod and reel combo at Dallas Sports; it came with a Cortland graphite rod, a Rimfly reel spooled with Cortland line and backing. After watching the little instructional video that came with the package and getting everything put together I was soon practicing my casting in the backyard swimming pool. Soon after I made my way down to a little creek that ran behind our house. Knowing of a hole that held a lot of sunfish I rigged the rod with a small yellow Betts Sneaky Pete and eased my way up to the edge of the creek. It only took one cast and the second they fly hit the water a sunfish hit the popper, lifting back to set the hook the fly came flying back without hooking the sunfish. Completely disappointed but not letting that distract me from my desire to land my first fish on a fly, a quick cast back into the rippling water and the fly was eaten again. This time I was hooked up to my first fish, the feisty green sunfish put up a great fight and was soon brought to hand. I wish I had a picture of that fish to show yall but no pictures were taken that day.

I went back to the same creek today and a lot has changed. Most of the deep holes have been silted in and no longer hold the fish they once held. I found lots of small green sunfish and caught a few but ended up moving on after about an hour due to the lack of fish and getting eaten up by mosquito's.

A double on some small longers.

I drove to the little creek I have been fishing lately and it was on fire. I caught some nice longears and copper nose bluegill. Also got a great creek bass on a hopper. 

My Baby Girl

My baby girl Brynlee. It is never to early to start them on the flyfishing journey. Thanks Royal Photography, looking forward to seeing the other pictures from today's shoot.

If you like this photo, please go LIKE the page. https://www.facebook.com/RoyalPhotographyDFW

Gang Green

The green sunfish, has a large mouth and a heavy, black bass body shape. The body is dark green, almost blue, dorsally, fading to lighter green on the sides, and yellow to white ventrally. Faint vertical bars are apparent on the sides.The green sunfish is a very versatile species, able to tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions, and tends to do very well when competition with other sunfish is minimal. Its ability to tolerate environmental extremes makes it ideal for survival where conditions are not stable, and it is often the first sunfish species to repopulate depleted areas. Green sunfish nest in shallow water colonies where nests are often closely packed.

This is what I had the pleasure if casting into this afternoon. The second the fly hit the water it was blitzed by a gang of greenies. I think greenies are the most aggressive species of the sunfish family.

I have no idea how many fish I caught,

but it was pretty much every cast.

 All lots of nice greenies. 

There are always lots of bass cruising the edges of the beds.  

Notice the belly on this guy.