Medina River Matinée

I have been fishing this small body of water for over ten years now, and it still throws me an occasional curve. My greater opponent this time was the faulty memory card in my Nikon D70. I took a hand full of photos on this trip that I was really excited to see again, but that didn't happen. Twenty-two of them were unaccessible on the card and I was not about to pay another $20 at Precision Camera to retrieve them. That was more out of principle and stubbornness than anything else. On the other hand, fishing was good. Harrison and I caught a lot of bass, some huge bluegill, and a few carp. I'm still too disappointed to give much more of a description than that. Until next time.

Port Mansfield

I have never outright forgot my camera case until this trip, but a big thanks to Lonnie for being prepared with his waterproof point and shoot camera. Bernie, Lonnie and I launched kayaks off the south jetty at Port Mansfield this past Sunday, and did battle with 5 species of fish (tarpon, trout, redfish, snook, and ladyfish). I had my 10 weight fly rod rigged and ready, but without any indication of my target species I opted to throw buck tail and soft plastic jigs. Being somewhat of a purist in fly fishing, I thought all soft plastics were created equal, and I felt that I'd never need the additional help of scented products when sight casting these bombs to fish. Berkley Gulp has changed my mind.
Bernie threw a Gulp shrimp and concentrated on a smaller area than Lonnie I, and that proved to be most productive. Lonnie threw in more open water and got a lot more ladyfish activity than Bernie and me. I was all over the place, looking for signs of the silver king. To my credit, I did jump one small tarpon (small meaning about 20 lbs.).

Port Aransas, Once More

I wasn't planning on another flats fishing adventure in Port Aransas, but my good friend Chip Evans and his dad talked me into joining them this Saturday. Like many times before, I arrived at first light. The ferry ride from Aransas Pass to Port Aransas always gives me a good feeling inside. What makes that feeling even better are the barbacoa breakfast tacos at CMR.

Chip, as some of you may remember, ties the nicest deer hair flies around, and he ties about every other kind of fly with as much attention to detail. On this particular outing we were not using deer hair bugs and Chip wasn't even using a fly rod. He had just purchase the G. Loomis Escape series spinning rod (line weight 2-6 lbs) like the one I have been bragging about since last fall. What made his rod special was the vintage reel that he put on it, a Penn 716 Spinfisher (c. 1965).

It was a beautiful morning and I had been telling myself that I was going to take photos rather than pursue fish all day. That was easier said than done. With rod in hand and my camera nearby, short windows of opportunity for both weapons were abound. I was not disciplined enough to just hold the camera, and not coordinated enough to hold both. I got some good shots with each and I misses some other good shots with each. Should I invest in a helmet cam to solve this dilema?

Chip and his dad arrived about an hour after I did. By 7:00 a.m. I had already seen a lot of fish in shallow water and I had landed a few, but the rising sun was about to give us the edge we needed. When the clock struck 10:00 a.m. the lights came on and we saw fish every in direction. Good tides might have had something to do with it as well. The redfish averaged 22 inches and the black drum and ladyfish were of good size. All were great on light tackle; I comfortably threw my 6 wt GLX all day long. The wind was mild in the morning but picked up to 12 mph towards the late afternoon. It was a great day to be alive, and a nice break from life back on the ranch.