Joel | May 31, 2011
I took Wayne Scott out for a trip to the Ray Roberts flats today. Typical late May weather (windy with scattered am clouds) that didn’t behave quite as forecast. The clouds didn’t burn off until noon and we spent the morning hours casting to tails and shallow backs and making the best of any shot [...]
Joel | May 28, 2011
Here’s a shot taken from my FRONT PORCH of a small tornado that moved through Argyle and south Denton this week. I only saw it for about 45 seconds before it “roped” back into the cloud. Luckily, it was moving away from us and I was able to show my 9 year old a real [...]
Joel | May 21, 2011
Man – what a storm system we had yesterday. The Roberts drainage got over 2″ of rain in some places (and that was in less than 6 hours). The Trinity River @ Gainesville, which is a NWS river gauge station, saw its water load quadruple in a matter of hours. The lake is up over [...]
Joel | May 17, 2011
Everything seemed to be in a rush to summer since Easter. Water levels were LOW and warming nicely, insect species were popping up that usually don’t hatch until Memorial Day, and we seemed to be breaking out of our La Nina pattern of weather. All that changed with the rain and associated cool front this [...]
Joel | May 14, 2011
I’ll be at the Tailwaters Flyfishing Co.’s 4th annual birthday bash tomorrow in Dallas. Food (crawfish catered by Hook, Line & Sinker), beer, gear and casting demos, and sale items galore! Sunday it’s out to the lake for a full day scouting mission. Things are really starting to pop and I need to check the effects [...]
Imagine wading through ten inches of clear water,trying to be as quiet as possible. Fifty feet ahead is a pod of large fish "tailing" on the flat. You strip out fly line, make the cast, and pull your fly in front of the lead fish. After agonizing seconds the fish spots the fly, rushes forward for a quick grab, and feels the hook. The silence is broken as the fish accelerates across the flat, quickly exposing backing on your screaming reel. Sounds like a great day on the coast, or even an exotic bonefish flat, right? Actually it's a great description of the usual day my clients have fishing for Carp on the flats of Lake Ray Roberts where many clients are blown away by the water clarity and the actual ability to sight cast along miles of flats. Big spooky fish in shallow water. They fight and tail like Redfish and can sometimes rival Bonefish in nervousness. This is an EXCELLENT WAY to hone your flats fishing skills and test your "eyes" where it's more about stalking the fish than simply stumbling upon them. You will be a better flats angler!