DFW Fly Fishing

Posted By Joel on August 1, 2011

Sorry about the delay in posts but life sometimes gets in the way of even fishing!  I’ve spent the last three weeks either in St. Louis (one of my favorite towns) or Colorado, hiking the CD trail and getting in some cutthroat fishing.

As for the carp fishing on Ray Roberts? There isn’t any.  I’d love to sugar-coat that for you – but, there it is.  Water temps are in the 90′s all over the lake and I’m sure fish are leaving the flats by 11am.  About the only game to be had right now is sand bass.  They are schooling regularly in the mornings and the evening bite should be starting soon.  Historically, this evening bite has been the time to catch larger (over 1-1/2 lb.) fish on the fly but with a forecast high of 110 tomorrow, I’m not that excited to go look.  Three days ago I could see my breath inside a tent at 12,000 ft. on the Continental Divide – it’ll take a few more days to acclimate!

So, I think I’ll hide in the AC and throw together a short slideshow for you from Colorado.  Here’s a tease to get you through this 107 afternoon . . .

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Tags: Colorado

Posted By Joel on July 8, 2011

I spent a HOT day on the Ray Roberts flats this past weekend with Matt Miller of Dallas.  Matt set the record for number of carp in a day by a client (14) last year and we were looking to set the bar a little higher for 2011.  Unfortunately, warming water temps shutdown our afternoon fishing and we had to call it after 9 fish brought to hand (still, not a bad day at all!). 

Good news is that the break in high winds allowed the Hexes to hatch again.  This hatch had just started about four weeks ago when that stretch of 30+ mph winds started; they were blown to bits.  In accordance to part observations, with the Hexes came bass and Matt landed a nice one right off the edge of a west-side flat.  This fish was cruising the shallows looking for emerging or adult bugs and took a Bitters as soon as it came close.

We are definately into our “late summer” pattern (as if you didn’t know) of high pressure, HOT afternoon temps, and warm nights.  I got up at 5:45 for a run yesterday and it was only 81 degrees.  What this means for the flats is water temps that are unfishable by 2-3pm.  Matt and I found some water this weekend that had to be over 90 degrees.  Uncomfortable for us; uncomfortable for the fish (remember your chemistry . . . gas solubility decreases with temperature – there’s little dissolved oxygen in 90+ degree water).

PROGRAMMING NOTE:  I’ll be giving a slideshow presentation to the Dallas Flyfishers at their monthly meeting this Monday @ the Addison Convention Center.  The meeting starts at 7pm and I’ll go on so after.  Hope to see you there!

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Tags: Carp, flats, Fly Fishing, North Texas, Ray Roberts

Posted By Joel on July 3, 2011

I get emails and comments from time to time asking specific questions regarding techniques used on the freshwater flats.  Recently, a lot of traffic has come my way regarding buffalo, especially the smallmouth buffalo in local impoundments.

First, a little taxonomy.  There are three species of buffalo in the US (all members of the sucker family – Catostomidae), the Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus), the Black Buffalo (I. niger), and the Smallmouth Buffalo (I. bubalus).  All species have overlapping ranges with most concentrated on the Mississippi/Ohio drainages.  Smallmouths require cleaner/deeper lakes and rivers than the bigmouth and blacks seem too like rockier areas.  All are primarily benthic feeders that feed on copepods, caldocerans, bottom plants, aquatic insects, mollusks, small fishes, and fish eggs. The bigmouth is actually a filter-feeder.

The fish that is seen on the Ray Roberts flats is the smallmouth buffalo (an excellent name for this fish).  They will be seen as singles, pairs, or small groups of up to 6-7 fish.  8 or 9 pounds is about average and the largest I have caught was just over 14 – the infamous Boga snatcher.  These guys put up an amazing fight if hooked in shallow water and will clear a reel in seconds if fought in a clear area.  The only down-side is the slimed leader you end up with after the ordeal!

So, the problem is actually hooking the fish.  I know that people catch buffalo in rivers around here (like the Brazos below PK and the Red below Texoma) and that some of these fish are actually hooked in the mouth and not snagged.  Fish in a river seem to feed differently than buffalo on the flats.  In the rivers, I assume they feed with the current and pluck particulate matter out of the flow.  This must be very difficult, however, as their small mouth protrudes down at almost a 90 degree angle to the body.  The bigmouth buffalo is much better designed for this with a more superior mouth.  Over half of the buffalo I’ve ever caught in a river were snagged in some fashion.

On the flats, these fish swim slowly along the bottom, feeling/smelling prey and then sucking up the organic material with  their extended mouth.  THEY DO NOT FEED BY SIGHT.  This is tough for fly-fisherman to wrap their minds around.  We are used to fish that grab our flies because they SAW it (or at least sensed its presence with their lateral line . . . like a popper).  Gamefish will zero in on a stripped or drifting fly and then use their sense of sight in the last seconds to take it.  A buff on the flat will not move even an inch out of its way to suck in a fly no matter what it looks like or how it is retrieved – they’re just not programmed like that.

Look at the photo of the buff mouth above.  It’s no larger than my thumb.  And the fly we’re using is about the same size.  Here’s your problem.  These two things need to come together at the same time and place – pretty tough.  To achieve this, your fly has to be ON THE BOTTOM, in front of the fish as it passes over it.  The buffalo needs to sense slight movement under it’s head and then it will turn on the suction like a ray over a crab.

Most anglers that cast ahead of a buff actually end up lining the fish with the leader.  The optimal presentation is one in which the buff is coming at you or at a slight angle.  Use a fluoro leader for maximum sink rate of fly AND LEADER.  Cast far enough ahead of the fish so that the fly is on the bottom and you can strip it forward if needed for correct position.  As the fish swims over the fly, SLOWLY lift the rod or strip the fly (depending on depth/distance).  If you feel anything, set the hook.  You have to do this quickly, they will spit out  inorganic material just like any other fish.

I don’t believe fly selection is that important . . . AGAIN, they don’t see it – they FEEL it.  something that sinks quick with some nice, moving rubber legs will do the trick.  We have the best luck with bonefish bitters.

If you want to get a visual as to how difficult this is (and why it is such a low-percentage game) put a nickel in a coffee cup.  The nickel represents the size of the mouth/fly and the coffee cup is roughly the size of the area a buffalo will search as it moves along.  Imagine how exponentially difficult it is to get that nickel in that coffee cup as distance increases! Fun, huh?  The good thing is that buffs are not very spooky on the flats and will let you get within 10 – 12 feet and cast at them several times.

Finally, a word on identification.  As mentioned earlier, buffs are members of the sucker family.  Carp are actually minnows (Cyprinidae).  The smallmouth buffalo has a deeper body than the carp and is usually paler in color with a dark tail.  Carp also have a dorsal spine that the suckers lack.

Category: Fly Fishing, Instruction | No Comments »
Tags: flats, Fly Fishing, North Texas, Ray Roberts, Smallmouth Buffalo

Posted By Joel on June 29, 2011

Chris Bancroft and Bruce Leadbetter were my clients this past Saturday on the flats of Ray Roberts.  We had to deal with the horrid winds of the past several weeks and the rotten bottom (tough for wading) that has been exposed by the low lake levels, BUT, the rewards were NICE!

Bruce landed the first buffalo of the season (more on how we’re figuring out how to hook these beasts in a later post) after a battle that pushed his Sage SLT 5 wt. to it’s max!  This buff probably weighed 11-12 pounds.

Chris caught several carp and he finally tied into one at the end of the day that gave us a worthy fight.  You always hear of carp referred to as “Golden Bones” but they’re really more like a “Golden Red” in how they act and fight.  It’s much more about strength than speed with them.  The carp pictured that Chris is holding gave us the typical carp reaction – several good runs and then a bulldog/see-saw fight with lots of “shoulder.”

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Tags: Carp, flats, Fly Fishing, North Texas, Ray Roberts, Sage fly rods, Smallmouth Buffalo

Posted By Joel on June 27, 2011

Jed Rosenthal and I hit the flats this past Thursday to battle the carp (and wind).  We’re definately getting to the point of needing LESS wind (which is on the way – see below) and several inches of water in the lake (no chance what-so-ever).

Jed had a great Thomas and Thomas rod that really helped with the 25+ gusts we were dealing with; he could straighten a leader with only 20 feet of flyline out and a wind quartering off his casting shoulder.   We had several hookups and the carp pictured didn’t make a cent off the Abel reel that was attached to the T&T.  You don’t see too many T&T rods around here and I believe the company has had a rough time the past decade or so, but they really made fantastic rods way back when.  I have a 25 yr. old “Deerfield Special” 8-1/2 ft. 4 wt. that is still one of my favorite trout rods.

The doe and second-year fawn live on the edge of one of the flats at Ray Roberts.  We see her just about every trip to that area.  She let Jed and I get within 50 yards before she and the fawn

Weather Update - Well, I’ve been praying for a cease to these blast furance conditions and it looks like we’re going to get it.  Unless you’ve been under a rock (or in the NW), you know we really didn’t have a “June” in terms of weather conditions – we went straight from May to July.  Our Hex hatch was pretty much blown apart by the winds and the evaporation has put the lake 19-20″ low (that’s not going to be fun come August).

Now it looks like our July/August pattern is about to start.  This means a high pressure dome locks above north Texas and we have the same weather until the end of August – highs about 100 degrees, little chance of rain (with the exception of a random tropical system), and a 5-10 mph SW wind.  We’re in for a long, HOT 6-8 weeks folks – get ready.  If there is an “up” side to this, it’s that this will be GREAT fishing conditions for carp AND SAND BASS.  We’ll finally be able to stalk carp and make decent casts to them and our amazing water clarity will only continue!

The sand (white) bass have already started their summer pattern.  These fish are a BALL on a fly rod.  They push schools of shad to the surface early in the morning and cut through them like jacks on the coast.  We fish them with a tandem popper/streamer rig for doubles.  Imagine two sand bass, each a pound or more, pulling in opposite directions on the end of a six weight.  FUN STUFF!

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Tags: Carp, flats, Fly Fishing, fly rod, North Texas, Ray Roberts, Thomas and Thomas, weather