Monday Morning Variety Pack
Word from up north is the roads are being coated and the faucets covered in preparation for days of freezing weather and precipitation, all as we head into February. Once again, I have my own whacky theories about the calendar being off by a month, but who listens to the whacky old guy anyway!
SATURDAY’S ANNUAL MEETING
Last Saturday evening the local Laguna Madre Fly Fishing Association had its annual banquet in Harlingen, Texas. Awards for the year-long club tournament, raffles and barbecue made the whole event one of the most inclusive fly fishing club meetings I have ever seen. And I was given a slot to try and organize something to say about the new Los Pescadores and include hints about the new location on South Padre Island.
RUSTY TALK
Needless to say, after not being around people for several months now, my speaking skills were extremely lacking. I just didn’t know how lacking they were! It goes to show you; so much of what we care to do needs practice, doesn’t it? I did do a good job of NOT talking about myself though! And that was the most important thing really – if anyone wants my history, as boring as it is, I trust them to ask me in person. Thankfully, a handful of people did hang around after the meeting and ask questions about Los Pescadores, and our timeline. Unfortunately, the younger folks had something better to do and hit the exits at light speed – whatever lights their fly fishing fire was lost by me. I was thankful though: Not a stitch of Howler Brothers was seen on a single person of any age. (Are we “four years behind the rest of Texas,” as many here have said, or in this case Four Years Ahead?)
This club contest is already up and running this year – it runs on a calendar year – and I would be lying if I said I may have had a little bit of that competitive juice arise when I saw the Larry Haines prints that were awarded to the winners from last year’s contest. Just a reminder, we will have Larry Haines artwork in Los Pescadores once it opens. (More on Larry Haines coming soon.)
JETTIES FLOCKS
Sunday, January 30, the were probably fifty people fishing on the South Padre Island Jetties in rough conditions. The sheepshead were in close and tight to the Jetties, and if you were thirty feef from someone catching “sheepies” on live shirmp? You may as well have been a mile away. These flocks are bunched up like they are being herded by a couple of Border Collies – it’s a tight bite.
I caught another speckled trout on a white shrimp pattern, but just didn’t have what it takes to get a fly down to the Texas Permit community, and the folks next to me were feeding these nice sized sheepies fresh live shrimp. Keep in mind: As a fly fisher in an ocean, if you can park close to someone feeding live filet mignon? Just think of it as chum, and cast!
The south wind did increase towards noon, and the waves were breaking over the Jetties in sets the entire time. Those breakers will wash away anything you leave on the granite, so either tie it down, go further out to the second section of the Jetties, or wear everything on your back and give it a go. Small heavy flies, like the ReyRam, and a sink tip with fluorocarbon leaders make sense to me. Let it sink, and take your chances on a snag. Snags are part of the Jetties life, and many times it will be someone else’s broken off line that catches your fly. I would imagine an underwater image of the Jetties rocks looks like they’re covered with a spider web. It’s that bad.
Thanks for reading this Monday Morning. The sun dial is moving here! Today the sun peaked around a beach condo, and lit me at sunrise, on the breezeway for the first time in months …
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