Rain at last....

Thanks to Mother Nature combining moisture from both a tropical depression on the East coast of Mexico, and a hurricane in the mouth of the Gulf of California with a cold front from our Northwest, rain prayers of many all over Texas were answered. Water, what would we do without it? Someday, soon I'm afraid, as population growth puts more and more pressure on that much taken for granted resource it will become the most valuable and much contested commodity in much of the West and Southwest. Such extravagant uses as maintaining hundreds of acres of manicured golf courses will come into question. But enough of my disdain for gluttonous water guzzling golf courses, along with the much needed rain came some welcome cool air just in time for the first day of Fall, perhaps my favorite time of year. The cooler weather marks the beginning of the fall bite in many of our local lakes, colors the landscape with golden and crimson leaves and sets the stage for the year end holiday season. Happy Fall y'all!

Backyard Raptor

Green Anole

I was sitting on my backyard deck yesterday when I noticed a young Green Anole about four inches long crawling slowly along the cross bars of my tomato stakes. "Hello lizard", I said. He stopped at the sound of my voice and rolled one eye in my direction. "You're safe here", I told him. At that both eyes rolled in what seemed all directions checking for a lie in what I had just told him. In a moment he seemed confident I had told him the truth. It was still and quite on this morning and the Anole's eyes moved only at the sound of my voice or when my Brittany Spaniel danced across the deck chasing her own phantom sounds and smells. The lizard sat on its perch and I on mine enjoying the cloud free, September dawn. Suddenly the little lizard's tail raised skyward and began to roll out, back and forth, like a fly fisherman false casting in pursuit of a rising trout. It was a graceful but impending motion and after no more than three or four cast of its tail the Anole, eyes focused intently forward, pounced a full body length on what next appeared to be a lady bug now bulging from the tiny lizard's extended mouth. The instant I saw the bug I knew where I had seen that same attack pattern before....Jurassic Park and its ominous raptors. Perhaps those story tellers were familiar with this antic and had incorporated it in their script. Perhaps all lizards do this, but it was a first for me and a joy to behold. I thanked the little Anole for showing off in front of me.

Christmas Trout

Christmas Rainbow Trout

Christmas Eve was spent on the river catching up on some much needed trout fishing. I had actually planned to fish Christmas morning because none of the kids were coming home this Christmas and since they are all out West I could easily fish Christmas morning and be home in time to connect with them Christmas afternoon. I was sure to have the river to myself. Every time I checked the forecast it was worse than the last. I decided freezing temps with wind gust up to thirty miles per hour was too much for an old fisherman regardless of how bad I wanted to be on the water to shed some pent up stress baggage.

As Texas would have it, however, when I checked the weather for Christmas Eve, conditions were forecast to be perfect. A Christmas Eve trip began to take form. I might not have the river to myself, especially since the weather was going to be so much nicer than Christmas Day, but if I fished in the evening instead of the morning that might improve my odds for uncrowded waters.

I stopped in Mineral Wells for lunch then drove on to the river arriving about two. There were a few vehicles parked at the bridge but when I got down to the river I saw only a couple of fisherman downstream and a father and young son across the river fishing the pool just below the bridge. I made a few cast there but decided to leave that pool to them and move above the bridge where I thought I had seen a few rises. The flow in the river was good which was a Christmas blessing because it had been a trickle at 20 cfs for the past week. It's difficult to do a dead drift presentation if you can't get anything to drift.

Sure enough there were a few fish rising about fifty yards upstream of the bridge. I caught three or four of the ten inch hatchery trout drifting an emerger pattern beneath a dry fly. As usual once I declared to myself that I had the trick for trout that day they quit taking my offering and I had to search my medicine bag for new magic. I think the fish gods do that to punish you for patting yourself on the back. Anyway I decided a Griffith's Gnat might be in order and they loved it.

I have heard some of the elitist fly fisherman talk down to fly fisherman that fish for the hatchery trout here in Texas and I agree it's not as good as it gets but how many of us can afford to fly off to where the fish are wild and... are wild fish in these remote places that maybe have not ever seen an artificial fly really that much harder to catch than a trout raised in a hatchery...maybe, maybe not. The hatchery trout serve to keep my skills honed and keep me in tune with the equations that equal fish in the hand and they get me outdoors where my soul can breathe again.

This trip had the added bonus of giving a couple of youngsters their first lesson in fly fishing. They left with a limit of trout and a father thankful enough for the assistance that he asked for my name twice and offered me a beer and a cigarette. I declined but thanked him for both and wished him a Merry Christmas as I waded back across the river under my red and green Christmas hat.

Fellow denizens

 

These guys took up residence at my place this summer. One guards the backyard. The other two patrol the back porch mostly at night. The toad is a handsome prince that seems to tolerate my presence in his backyard, moving aside to allow me to pass with no complaint and no fear. The gecko on the other hand trust me to get only so close before she scurries off to one of her hidey holes until I've left. The green anole once popped his orange throat at me in a blazing display of defiance as I tried to sit in his back porch chair. I let him have the chair and now check under the cushion before I sit there. I am fond of my little reptile and amphibian animal friends and believe they are here because I refuse to use pesticides around my house. Yes I have bugs, the ones these friends don't eat, but they keep them to a reasonable level as Nature intended...good trade! 

It seems right to live with nature instead of against it. We are all part of the same whole, part of the grand purpose and part of the grand finale if we allow it. Be good to your fellow denizens, share with them what was meant for us all. Give not take, share not hoard, understand harmony with all that lives. I will miss them this winter, happy hibernation good friends.

chic flick with a river running through it

Fly fisherman all over the country may have hit pay dirt with a little lauded flick titled Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, a chic flick with a river running through it. Fly fishing philosophies and relationships on the rocks, fly tying and impossible love, good guys and bad guys and a testament to evidence of things hoped for but yet unseen and the tenacity in the lives of men and fish that can foster, this film has something for virtually everyone. So fly anglers grab your significant other and curl up with this movie. It could refine your passion for fly fishing and change your luck in love. 

Shaman knife

Every shaman angler needs a flint knife if for no other reason than to please the ancients should they be looking on. The stone I made this from, Georgetown flint, was a gift from a new friend I became acquainted with just this weekend. He tossed me a large flake he had dislodged from the spall he was working and said, "Here make something with that." To be honest my first thought wasn't knife blade. The first thought was about being embarassed in front of the donor when I turned his gift into lithic debitage, but as I began to work the stone it gave rise to a knife blade figment. The more I worked the more my mind became focused on bringing a shaman's knife to fruition. I dug out the deer antler shed I had been saving for an unknown reason until now and then leather and fur from my fly tying supplies. Some grinding and carving on the antler for a good fit, and finishing touches to the blade edges, the parts were assembled by the end of the day into my first shaman knife. This certainly wasn't my planned purpose for the day but sometimes good things happen if you allow them by staying out of the way. Yet one more example of lending an ear to those small voices that are there to guide you.

Dragon dreams

Dragon Dream

On my last two trips fly fishing for bass I watched sizable bass leap a full body length or more from shoreline waters in an attempt to capture dragonflies hovering overhead. One would think there must be something very appealing about dragonflies for a fish to expend that much energy on a venture so unlikely to succeed. Actually their success rate may be higher than you imagine. I have caught bass whose stomachs were full of dragonflies. I've attempted to imitate the dragonfly with various forms of poppers but never with much success due mostly to the fact the summertime shallows frequented by the dragonflies almost always contain weeds and/or moss making a weedless fly an absolute necessity. Weedless poppers that are actually weedless are hard to come by. Necessity being the mother of invention the solution pictured came to me in a day dream. This simple pattern is made from craft foam, lays hook up in the water, is virtually weedless and the bass love them. The wings are made from crystal flash but other similar materials should work just as well. The downside, due to the wings, the fly tends to twist your leader during the cast so you have to keep your false casts to a minimum. The craft foam comes in numerous colors and is very inexpensive. If you fly fish for bass give it a try on your next summertime bass fishing adventure. I think you will be pleased. If your are not a fly fisherman perhaps you should be.