Fishing recession

Other than taking my son for an hour of fly fishing at a neighborhood pond, I haven't really done much fishing lately. My favorite river is pretty dried up. The nearby lake had its last public ramp closed today due to super low water levels. The lake is over 31 feet below the August average. Sad really. We need rain, and lots of it, badly.

I do have a week of vacation in late September and I hope to be able to go to the coast for a few days to fish for redfish and trout.

I hope my fellow fly fishers in other locations are fairing better than I. In the meantime, I'll hang in there and hope this fishing recession ends soon.

TV Fishing Personalities I like

A while back the guys over at Fat Guy Fly Fishing brought up a TV outdoor person, that well, wasn't quite liked by a lot of folks. It got me thinking of who out there in TV land I do like. Here is my short list:

• Bill Dance
• Al Linder
  
• Larry Dahlberg
• Roland Martin
• Flip Pallot

The number one guy in my book for the best TV fishing show personality has got to be Bill Dance. The guy has a great sense of humor. He's incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to fishing for bass, a species I really enjoy going after. Oh yeah, he's had his show since 1968 for goodness sake! More than just watching him fish, the guy gives you a serious and professional education on all the variables that go into fishing. His tips are gold in my opinion. I have watched his show for years and am kind of interested in seeing his new saltwater show where he will be targeting saltwater species such as redfish and speckled trout that I also like to go after.

Another guy that explains a lot of what he is doing and looking for while fishing is Al Linder. However, as great a guy as he is, I just don't get the same vibe as I do with Bill Dance. Maybe it's his Minnesota accent. I don't know. He also fishes for species like musky and walleye that we don't have here in Texas so I don't really have much interest in those shows. I still think he is great instructor though.

Larry Dahlberg is a world class fisherman. While I am not as interested in the big fish he goes for, I am more in awe of his tenacity, versatility and inventiveness. He is a guy that will throw a plug from his baitcaster at one point and then switch it up with a fly the next moment. Of course he invented some of the best big fish flies like his famous Dahlberg Diver. I have seen him create molds and pour his own top water plugs. The man knows his stuff. He is a great guy to watch fishing. I just wish he would speak more about what is going on in his mind. I know the guides he goes out with learn a lot from him.

What can I say about Roland Martin? He's a really likable guy. He has a cool song about him on his show. He is of course knowledgeable about fishing. You could have a drinking game based on how many times you catch him saying "Son!" and be drunk my mid-show. He is also an excellent fisherman. Though his show is mostly about bass fishing, he has ventured out into saltwater fishing from time to time which is cool. I also have seen him cast a fly a few times on his show as well. He is another guy that gives good tips though some of the products that he pushes are sort of weird (like the Rocket Fishing Rod for kids). His son, Scott Martin, is trying to follow in his steps with his own show though I have seen it a few times and it really isn't as good as his dad's. One thing about Roland that I really like is that he is truly an old time gentleman.

On the saltwater end, I really like Flip Pallot. He is also an amazing saltwater fly fisher. I dig watching him go for sharks, tarpon and billfish. These are fish I have never personaly gone for. It is just neat watching the guy. He reminds me of the old weathered salts I sometimes come across at the fishing table when I am at the coast that are fishing machines. They have so much experience and know precisely when to go out and when not to and where they can find the fish and what the fish want. That's what I think about when I watch Flip.

I know I missed a few such as Hank Parker as I haven't really seen his show all that much. One thing I know about Hank is that he has fished out of a kayak before. I wonder if Bill Dance would ever go kayak fishing with me? It would probably be another infamous blooper opportunity as I expect he'd flip it or paddle right into a hornet's nest or something. On second thought...

Vintage reel brings back memories

Last night I was going through my fishing stuff in the closet looking for some lost lures and came across a box containing a vintage Shimano baitcasting reel. The reel was a bit dirty and had one screw missing for the level wind but otherwise was intact.

The reel used to belong to my father and I received it from my sisters when my dad was placed in a nursing home to get round-the-clock care due to his affliction of Alzheimer's.

The reel brought back memories of my cousin and I as young boys taking it and the rod it was attached to without permission one morning to go fish a canal down the road from where I lived. I also remember my father coming over the berm down into the canal and grabbing my cousin and I by the shoulder and taking us back home ending that fishing excursion mighty quick. Needless to say the rod and reel where off limits the rest of that summer.

I decided to clean up that old reel as best I could to place it in my office so that I don't forget my family's passion for fishing. My dad collected and fixed up rods and reels but didn't have much time to fish though.

My grandfather was a devoted fisherman. One of my earliest memories of going fishing was when I was probably three or four years old and going with my grandpa and my dad to fish the Brownsville ship channel. I remember they caught either a ribbon fish or some sort of eel that startled me. I also remember walking off and stumbling into some cactus and getting needles in my palms and my knees and my dad pulling them out while I bawled my eyes out. My grandfather kept on fishing of course.

My grandfather was an excellent fisherman. I remember eating fresh fish he would bring home that my grandmother would skillet fry after battering the fish in corn meal. That fish was delicious! My grandfather was also very partial to flounder.

My cousin often says that he and I inherited our grandfather's passion for fishing. It's in our blood though for my grandfather a big part of it was also to simply put food on the table.

My grandfather passed away when I was about 14 and most of his beloved fiberglass rods and Penn reels and other saltwater tackle got dispersed among uncles and son-in-laws. Several years later my grandmother found one tackle box that she allowed me to have that belonged to him. I still have it though I don't use it.

I hope one day I can pass on some of my gear to my son, son-in-law or grandchild and it will remind them of our love for this sport.

What is fishing anyways?

My definition of fishing is the act of hunting for fish and catching them by means of a line and hook with some sort of bait to entice the fish to put the hook in its mouth. Typically this involves a rod to cast said line and hook. My current preference is using fly fishing tackle. I've even run across specific definitions such as this mediocre one on wikipedia.org about kayak fishing.

I was busy most of last week getting ready for the Christmas weekend which we spent in Laredo with family. On our return, we brought back one of my nephews that is close to my son's age and one of his most beloved of cousins. My nephew will be staying with us for a short while during Christmas break and so this afternoon I took my son and nephew to a neighborhood park where I could show him how to catch a fish with a fly rod.

The temperature this afternoon was in the low 60s and the water in the ponds wasn't quite warmed up yet even with the clear and sunny skies but I did entice a few sunfish. I briefed my nephew on the differences between fly tackle and conventional spinning/casting tackle. I showed him the typical cast and he watched as I caught a small sunfish.

My son, on the other hand, has already had this lesson before and proceeded to run around the park like a chicken with his head cut off. After a while, I was unable to hold my nephew's interest and he too went off to play with my son and basically explore the park like young boys do, leaving me to fish on my own. That was fine with me and eventually even though I was done and needed to get home to prepare to cook dinner (mesquite grilled burgers), they insisted on more time in order to "save" a cat. Eventually, my son stepped into the water and soaked his shoes, socks and pants legs and that was the end of the adventures at the park.

Here is a photo I took of the two boys holding one of the sunfish. My son is the one on the left wearing the white t-shirt.

Getting back to what is fishing? Well, in my son's mind, it is more than my meager definition and only a subset actually involves fish and there seems to be more focus and importance on just running around without a care in the world and simply having fun. In some ways, I like his definition better.

Fishing IS spiritual

I ran accross another blog that I found quite interesting written by a Jewish rabbi. It belongs to The Fly Fishing Rabbi. His recent post on fly fishing for bonefish in the Bahamas was refreshing. It described the difficulties of sightfishing and casting to bones. I think had he worn a good pair of polarized sunglasses, it may have helped. Oi vey!

I recently had a conversation with a local Catholic priest that is an avid fisherman though not yet a fly fisher...yet. In his sermons, it was obvious he was an angler giving some of his personal fishing experiences used as analogies to send home the message in a sermon. I saw him once at a sports store fishing section buying books on fishing for bluegills. I told him that the best tackle for that was a fly rod. I left him my email and hopefully he'll be interested enough in the spring to ask me more about it. When I mentioned I fish from a kayak though, that really piqued his interest.

The priest and I also had an interesting conversation about the whole spiritual experience that is fishing and being outdoors and frequently being in awe of the beauty that only the hand of God could have created. The times I really appreciate that are on an early morning watching a gorgeous sunrise across the water whether it be on the surf, a bay or a lake. Regardless of what the day holds instore fishing wise, your spirit is refreshed.

If I had a Barbie fishing rod

Yesterday, we went to Academy's Sports & Outdoors store to get my 8 year old son a youth compound bow (and a quiver with arrows) and my 5 year old daughter asked for a Barbie fishing rod to replace the hand-me-down Scooby Doo rod from my son. We've been practicing casts all day. You know, I own lots of high end tackle (conventional and fly) but to see how happy that $10 rod made her and the accomplishments of casting 30 ft where she wanted it to go was pricessless. Next task is to get her catching lots of brim at the pond. If your wondering why she's got a jacket on, no it's not cold. We started getting light rain and that did not deter her, she went inside and grabbed a coat and came back out to keep casting. She obviously has her daddy's attitude! :D