Snowing in Central Texas

Got some of that weird white fluffy stuff today. Lake levels should be close to normal after it melts. Cool!

The passing of a great Texas fly fishing master

I was reading through Ken Morrow's blog today and saw the news that Allen Crise of Glen Rose, Texas passed away this week. I was really saddened by this news. Mr. Crise was one of the few Certified Master Casting Instructors in Texas. He was also my teacher for fly casting and fly tying when I took it up in 2004 and I imagine he probably taught a good number of my fellow Texas fly fisherman. He was a great gentlemen as well. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I'll really miss the man and never forget him.

A little mud on the boots

A couple of days ago I drove the four hours from my home near Austin to my cousin's house in Corpus Christi looking forward to a couple of nice days of fishing.

Right before 7:00am on Friday we got to Oso Bay and launched on a high tide. The water was brackish from quite a bit of water flowing in from Oso Creek due to recent rain. We almost got the truck stuck in the mud before we launched and later that day spent over $10 at the car wash trying to get most of that mud off the underside.

We paddled for a while and got to our destination and found a couple of wade fisherman there. One of them was doing well catching trout. I had a really difficult time catching anything. I hooked up once with something that put a deep bend in my rod and pulled drag only to do a long distance release of it. My cousin was doing quite well for himself with several trout on his stringer. I also caught a small multi-spotted redfish with a pink worm fly I was dragging on the bottom.

An hour into fishing, we heard some woots from the wade fisherman and turned to see them holding one of the largest trout I have ever seen! We went over to where they were to check it out. The boga grip read around 9 1/2 pounds! They measured it at around 31 1/2" long! It was a once in a lifetime speckled trout! The guys, visiting from Houston, were shaking from excitement and with one of their cameras I took a photo of the two holding the trout. I had left my camera in my dry bag in the kayak and kick myself for not having it with me so you could have seen this trout.

After a couple more hours of fishing, we headed back to the truck to get something to eat, clean the truck and prepare for some fishing that night.

That evening we went to Bird Island basin and between crossing the JFK bridge, the temperature dropped around 12 degrees. It was pretty cold that evening with the humid northeast wind. In addition, the mosquitoes were out with a vengeance. We were only to pick up one additional keeper black drum before we got back to the house around 11:30pm. A long, tiring day. I slept like a log that night.

Saturday's plan was to fish the same area in Oso Bay though we got a later start. I did manage a couple of trout. The tide this time around was pretty low so there was a lot of walking through a deep muddy bottom.

And folks in Europe pay big bucks for mud like this!

That afternoon when we got back and cleaned everything up, showered, changed and drove to Port Aransas to have dinner at a place called Moby Dick's. I ordered their fried shrimp plate and it was really good! It was a good way to end the trip, enjoying some good food and company of my cousin and his wife. This time I got to bring a few fillets back. I am looking forward to the next trip.