Joel | June 18, 2011
Yesterday, I got on the NWS site to check the weather conditions for the day after I got home from a trip to the flats with Mike and Mandy from Fort Worth. At 1300 hrs, the air temp was 99 with a heat index of 104 and winds were 26S with gusts to 35 mph. [...]
Joel | June 13, 2011
You never know what you’re going to come across wading the flats of Ray Roberts. A partial list of piscatoral species includes Common Carp, Smallmouth Buffalo, Black Buffalo, Largemouth Bass, Freshwater Drum, Spotted Gar, Channel Catfish, and Bluegill (this list REALLY gets large when you include all the plant, mammal and bird species we see [...]
Joel | June 10, 2011
I had a great day on the flats yesterday with Ron and DeWayne; chasing carp and other species through the howling June wind. The forecast was a little off with the wind speeds as we had some gusts yesterday that made some casts (at least with a 5 wt.) impossible. To add to the difficulty, [...]
Joel | June 5, 2011
We finally got a break in our week of 25+ mph winds with a cloudless, clear day yesterday. Unfortunately, the lack of a breeze (combined with the SUPER clear water clarity we have now) led to really spooky carp. My clients (Jorge Calderone and BD Amend) caught fish but we had many “refusals” after what [...]
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 [...]
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!