DFW Flyfishing

Golden Fall Colors

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:38:00 +0000

Fishing Report - Fall 2008

Well, another season on the flats has come and gone - and this one was GREAT! Excellent water levels, big fish, and quite a few guide trips (not to mention a new baby) made for a busy summer. Thanks to all my new and repeat clients . . . I hope you had a great time and I look forward to hearing from you again next spring.

Now it's time to settle in for the winter; hit Oklahoma a few times for trout, the dam at Texoma for Stripers, shoot a few ducks - we'll post some adventures as they come. Remember to support your local flyshops this holiday season when purchasing gifts; they provide us with a great service and EVERYBODY needs a new rod (or waders) in their stocking!

Here's a photo of my last trip of the season. Michael Gillman (holding carp) and his friend, Buddy booked a trip in early October - right before the strong cool front. A beautiful early fall day with clear water, no wind and super spooky fish. Fall carp are a real challenge as many of the food sources that are easy to imitate with a fly (like damsel and dragonfly nymphs or immature crayfish) have become fairly sparse. A fly really needs to be presented well with a long, fine leader.

Tight lines until next time!

A Change of Seasons

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:49:00 +0000

What happened to summer?!?!? Three weeks ago it was "situation normal" for late August in Texas. Football in the heat, getting ready for dove hunting in the heat, FISHING in the heat - and then BAM! I left the house yesterday morning for a run and made it to the end of the street before I realized the strange sensation in my arms and face; I was COLD! I cannot remember a cooler early September (even without the hurricane).

Ike did not turn out to be the rain producer they thought it would be, we were about 50 miles west of major downpours. Obviously, you've heard the reports from the coast. Those folks need help (please contact your local Red Cross for Salvation Army to assist). A lot of guides and commercial fishermen lost EVERYTHING - many without the means to recover losses. Flats guides that make a living off of understanding the nuances of inches of water will find their playing fields completely erased. Trash and petrochemical waste will litter the flats for years - it's going to be a mess for sometime.

As for our fishing, the cool weather has slowed some aspects but in NO WAY is it over yet. Carp are still cruising the flats and the water clarity is as good as it gets. Water levels are holding at about 10" low (http://ahps.srh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=fwd&gage=rrlt2&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 )With water this clear, a long fine leader is needed for consistant hook-ups (especially if there is no wind). Hoppers can usually be used this time of year but really need a hot, dry SW wind to get going. Not much of that lately!

The sand bass are really confused. They're still around and "schooled up", but not surfacing as much as they should in September. This is usually the time of year when we fill the freezer with the evening sand bass bite. They can be caught deep - holding off structure - with slab spoons and jigs. Not what you would call fly rod fodder.

Rocky Mountain High

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:58:00 +0000

or "The One - Revisited"

I have finally returned from Colorado (and DAMN - it's HOT) - an amazing 8 days of backpacking, fly-fishing and climbing. The Williams Creek drainage in the Weminuche Wilderness north of Pagosa Springs was our target this year and it did not disappoint! I caught more wild, native cutthroat on this trip than I have in years. Usually, a high mountain drainage in Colorado will start with rainbows and browns at lower elevations and segue into brookies and cuts higher up (and you always catch more brookies than cuts). Not this stream. By the time we started fishing on the second "trail" day, we were over 3 miles above Williams Creek Reservoir and it was ALL cutthroat. Every fish we caught was clear and bright; a beautiful little gem with flaming slashes under the jaw and wild colors across the belly.

The new one weight (see below) worked wonderfully. It could hit pockets between alder bushes and shoot casts under willow "tunnels" like no other rod in attendance. A 10" cut felt like a 20" Platte River rainbow on the thing and I could feel the blank flex UNDER the handle while fishing fish - NEAT! Most of the fish were 9-12" but a few "toads" (for this stream/elevation) were landed. My largest was the 15-1/2" beauty pictured above. He was holding in a deep pool along a cliff-face in about 3 feet of water. I could see his tail periodically in a shaft of sunlight and knew he was THE FISH in the pool. My #14 Humpy was quickly replaced with a #12 tungsten beaded Prince and I flipped it upstream (sans strike indicator). On the second cast the drift abruptly stopped and the rod tip plunged to the surface. A few minutes later the fish came to hand, having maxed out the fish-fighting capabilities of the 1.4 oz. rod (at one point, I think I heard the rod whimper).

We found a few cut-bow hybrids in Williams Lake just below the continental divide at 12,100 feet, but other than that, all the fish were pure cutthroats (and the cut-bows were delicious - steamed with raisins and brandy). And to top off the trip, five days ago I was in a tent at 10,900 feet getting SLEETED on! It makes 106 degrees just a little more relative!

If you want to learn more about this amazing fishery and backpacking the wilderness area, I'll be giving a slideshow presentation at the Arlington Orvis store October 5th. More information to come.

The Bass Come to Play

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:43:00 +0000

Fishing Report - 7/24

The bass have invaded the shallows at Ray Roberts and are smacking flies in the morning! As with previous years, 1-2 pound bass have started patrolling the outer edges of the flats just after sunrise. It seems to be related to wind direction so I believe these fish are schooling on shad blown up against the shallow areas (flats ajacent to deep water have more action than those in "back bay" areas).

I took Trey and Scott out on the 23rd and Scott was hammering the bass - some he was even able to sight-cast to as they crossed the flat, popping the surface after bait-fish. He also caught a huge carp that just would not fight/run. This was a 6-7 pound fish that should have been into the backing in seconds. I finally just walked over and picked up the fish and the mystery was solved - NO TAIL! The fish had no caudal fin, just a little knub . . . strange.

The One

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:23:00 +0000

The "One" is a new, custom-made, TFO Finesse 6'9" one weight. It was made for me by Norm Goheen of Dallas and is an absolute gem!

Prospecting small, alpine streams for native trout is one of my favorite forms of fly fishing; usually in central or southern Colorado. I love backpacking up a new drainage and finding pockets of seemingly unmolested brookies and cutthroats. Traveling for 4-5 hours in the morning, setting up camp, and then fishing until dinner/dark is not a bad way to spend a day in the mountains. Make that 5-6 days in a row and you can pretty much cover two drainages - fish up one, cross a high saddle or pass, and fish down the next for a nice loop.

My rod of choice for these trips in the past has been an old Orvis One Ounce (7 foot, two piece, 4wt.). This is a wonderfully accurate little rod with the action of bamboo. The only problem is that the two piece tube doesn't fit well on a backpack . . . anywhere it is packed, it snags limbs, "clanks", or gives me the uneasy feeling of carrying an aluminum lightning rod. Also, there are many times when even a light, slow action 4wt. is TOO much rod.

I wanted a very light, medium action, 4 pc. one or two weight to play with the small cutthroat and brookies in the streams. I'm not concerned with distance; the rod needs to throw a #14 Humpy or Stimulator in a teacup at 20 feet. I noticed that Temple Fork added a one weight to their Finesse line this year. The Finesse series is a great line of rods and the BEST trout rods for the money on the market. I cast one at the TFO office in Dallas and knew it was the rod for the job - the four pieces measured just over 20 inches each. The only thing I did not like was the handle and guides. There are reasons TFO is able to bring great rods to the market at an unbelieveable price. All the Finesse rods have the same handle - from a 8'9" 6 wt. down to the little 1 wt. This made the little rod off-balance when loaded with a reel and line (and I'm a fanatic about rod balance). Also, the double-foot guides on the rod added unnecessary weight, bringing the rod to 2.4 oz. I knew this rod could weigh less than 1.75 ounces and told Jim Shulin, "I'll take a blank - and who's the best rod builder around?"

His answer - "Norm Goheen."

I called Norm and told him what I wanted . . . cork reel seat, single foot guides, minimal wraps, shave off every extra gram of weight. Two weeks later he called and said, "I have a rod for you and it's the tiniest thing I've ever built!"

And it IS TINY. It weighs 1.472 oz. on an analytical balance in my lab and balances perfectly with the little reel pictured. I ordered a custom cut 22", 1-5/8" diameter tube from REC (a "standard" 9 foot 4 pc. tube is 29" long and 2" in diameter - SEE THE PHOTO ABOVE). In backpacking terms, the difference in weight and length is amazing!

This rod will get its first trial next week, on a trip into the Weminuche Wilderness of Colorado (the exact target is the Williams Creek drainage). I have resisted all temptations to go to the local pond and try the rod out on some bluegills - this rod was made for trout and will be christened justly!

Expect a full report in about two weeks . . .

Mystery Fish Revisited!

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:14:00 +0000

Amazing! That's all I could say.

If you look a few posts down you will find a "mystery" fish I caught in a tidal lagoon in South Carolina. Turned out to be a Mozambique tiliapia. Yesterday, my 6 year old son and I went fishing at our local pond for the usual suspects - bass, bluegills, crappie, and the odd catfish. Well, he pulled in the pictured fish. A MOZAMBIQUE TILIAPIA!

You will also notice he caught it on a fly. My son is quite the purist and will not use worms - he fishes flies tied behind a casting bubble on a little, ultralight spinning rig. Neat.

Introducing . . . The BLITZ

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:28:00 +0000

I've had several clients tell me that their schedule only allows for one day of fishing in X weeks, months, or years. Many of these guys have said "Can we just cram as much fishing into one day as possible?" These trips have come to be know as Blitzes so I just thought I would put it out there for all.
Here's how it works . . . we meet at one of the Ray Roberts boat ramps at sunrise and head out to chase the morning sand bass bite. These fish are a BALL on 5 wts. as they crash schools of shad on the surface. It can be a challenge to get a fly back to the boat WITHOUT getting a strike and I like to fish them with a tandem fly rig. Imagine two 1lb. sand bass on a trout weight rod, each pulling in a different direction.
After the sand bass bite slows around 9-10am, we hit the flats for carp. A break for lunch and some shots at Black Buffalo and hit the flats again until 6pm or so. The sand bass action kicks up once more (with larger fish surfacing in the evening) and we'll chase them until sundown (8:00-8:30pm).
So there it is . . . 12-13+ hours of hard-core, non-stop fly fishing!. I provide drinks, lunch, snacks, flies and will even clean some sand bass for you if you want to take them home.
You WILL catch more fish than you ever have before in a day!
The BLITZ pricing . . .
1 angler - $375
2 anglers - $500
call (940)391-9480

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Fishing Report - 7/11

I had a half day guide trip yesterday and we caught fish like CRAZY! I get to say "we" because I took the liberty to cast a line for a short spell after lunch. My client yesterday is a birder and photographer as well as an excellent angler so, while he set up some shots he wanted to get of a heron nest, I entertained myself with my old Fisher Saltwater Travler 9wt. The Fisher is a grand old rod and was the first "high end" rod I purchased out of college (at the old Hunter Bradlee store in Dallas). These rods were ahead of their time in the late 80's with 4 pc. design and internal ferrules. It's usually is mated with a Billy Pate Salmon reel but that reel is in Mexico with a friend so it had to tolerate an old Cortland. I took the "big stick" with us in case we got a shot at the monster carp cruising the edge of the flat (we did - they refused).

This eight pounder took a Carp Teaser in about 6 inches of water and went nuts when I set the hook - going into the backing and putting a serious bend in the old rod.

The lake is about 7 inches low now and VERY CLEAR. Grass has started to grow on the east flats and the carp are doing their "lawnmower" routine. You can watch pairs and small pods of smaller fish cluster together and root up patches of grass.. The topwater sand bass bite has started and I'm having good luck finding them EARLY on the SW side of the lake and west of Wolf Island. A fun trip is to hit the lake at sunrise, play with the sandies for a few hours, and then chase carp after the topwater action fizzles (about 9:00am).

Give me a call to book a trip (940)391-9480.

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Fish Mystery Solved

I pride myself in being an amatuer naturalist - especially when it comes to aquatic species. So, I was dumbfouded last week when I pulled this fish from a tidal creek on Kiawah Island (see post below). I had no idea what it was but it fought like a bluegill on steroids and put a serious bend in an 8wt. rod . . . not bad for a pound and a half fish (for size comparison, that's a #2 Cave's Wobbler in its mouth). All I could guess is that it was some kind of cichlid.

I looked online and in all my field guides and found no satisfactory answers. Thursday I stopped by Tailwaters fly shop in Dallas and mentioned the fish to the guys. They jumped on the quandary like men possessed and I had an answer via email by that afternoon . . . a Mozambique tilapia !

Sweet Carolina!

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:02:00 +0000

We just returned from a trip to visit my wife's family in coastal South Carolina; spending a long, slow week on Kiawah Island about 20 miles south of Charleston. After way too much Yuengling and dishes like "cheese grits with a shrimp and oyster succotash and fried catfish filet" or "Crab and blue cheese stuffed fried pork chop" - I'm amazed that I only put on a few pounds! Low country cuisine is amazing and will trump "cajun" food any day of the week. These people would fry the iced tea (sweet, of course) if they could figure out how to do it and every recipe starts with "melt a stick of butter." Lord help the guests at our next dinner party . . . I've got recipes and I'm not afraid to use 'em!

Maybe the lack of huge weight gain was interrupted by the athletic fishing I did. Usually on these trips I'm able to sneak off for a day or two of guided fishing. However, with a six year old and a six MONTH old that's not sleeping very well - that was not going to be the case. Redfishing in SC is AWESOME! You don't see the numbers of fish like you will on the Texas coast but you will see TOADS. I've seen more trophy reds in SC (way over 36") than I have in the much publicized deltas of Louisiana. There is almost no wade fishing and with 5-6 foot tides, you have to know where you are and when it's time to leave - most of the fishing is flooded spartina grass and oyster beds.

Kiawah Island itself is laced with tidal creeks and lagoons, half of which make up the water hazards for the golf courses. I've never fished them before (and have not poached a golf course in 25 years) but decided to try this year after seeing a kid pull a huge crab out of one "pond." They where full of fish - croakers, ladyfish, spots, trout, black drum and MONSTER redfish. I caught the pictured small red on the second morning before being chased of the course by the golf pro - evidently I was the first Schwarzfischer they've seen.

The large reds (two of which had to be over 40") would spook and flush at ANY fly I threw to them. One of them accidentally swam over my leader and snagged himself under the jaw. In the ensuing fight, he broke my rod in two places and snapped the leader. I had to "MacGyver" the rod together with sections of an old spinning rod and epoxy, turning my 4 pc. 8wt. into a 2 pc. 10 wt.! This broomstick was up to the challenge when the pictured black drum took a small, #8 shrimp pattern. Great fight and I even managed to stop play on the nearby 17th green!

So now it's a goofy transition from 86 degree highs and 80% humidity to Texas in July. On a different note - Ray Roberts is transitioning wonderfully into the "deep summer" pattern. Many new flats are approaching great water levels and the sand bass bite is dialing in . . . this July promises to be one of the BEST!

Give me a call! (940)391-9480

Location "C"

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:02:00 +0000

Fishing Report - 6/23

Yesterday I scouted a new flat for the year. . . "Location C". This is a limited place - it can only be fished on dead calm or W to NE wind days (which we don't get much in the summer in N. TX) and it's one of the original "you can't get there from here" spots. But, MAN, does it have fish!

Location C doesn't have the numbers that some of the other flats have, BUT it has toads, absolute TOADS. A big PLUS for the day was catching a Smallmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus). We see these occasionally but they will rarely take a fly (they're primarily plankton feeders). While not the reel clearing runners that their cousins, the Black Buffalo, are; they are STRONG. Speaking of the Blacks, they should be turning on any day now and we can get them to eat if everything is perfect.

The carp in the photo was an easy 8 pounds and the buffalo bottomed out a 15# Bogagrip. The buffalo was finally a "maxamizing" test for the TiCr"X" 7'6" 6 wt - and with a borrowed Lamson/Waterworks Force reel, it passed with barely a whimper!

Call me and I'll take you there . . . (940)391-9480!

Tales of Tailwaters

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:23:00 +0000

Fishing Report - 6/18

I had an opportunity for a "guide's day off" and went fishing Sunday with David, Bart, and Travis from the Tailwaters Fly Shop in Dallas. Great guys, good times, and FISH! The meadow we cross to get to the south side of the flats is currently ablaze with color (Coreopsis and Brown-Eyed Susans - I think) - it's amazing to watch it change from the bluebonnet and paintbrush colors of April to the brillant yellow of mid-June.

As for the fishing, the east flats are beginning to show signs of stress/pattern change as we saw about half the number of fish I've seen in the past few weeks. By the end of June, it will be time to hit the westside areas as hydrilla will make most of the currently fishable flats almost impossible. Presentations and retrieves have to be spot on . . . they are not giving any "freebies."

East flats give it up again!

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:15:00 +0000

Fishing Report 6/14

I hit the eastside flats again Saturday, this time with Stanton Ray. We saw quite a few (read that over 100-150) fish and if I remember correctly, Stanton brought in 7. One of which was the 6 pounder in the photo.

The winds of last week have finally settled and this enabled us to spot more fish. Damsel nymphs seem to still be at the top of the menu so the new damsel/dragon fly was all that was needed (still need to come up with a "catchy" name for the new pattern). It's almost time to start scouting the west side flats - water temps and hydrilla will make the productibility of the east side a little dicey in a few weeks.

call (940)391-9480 for reservations

Getting Close to the Ultimate Carp Rod

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:23:00 +0000

Product Review

Temple Fork Outifitters TiCrX 7'6" 6 wt.

Flats fishing for carp at Lake Ray Roberts is a game of dichotomies; flies need to sink but cannot hit the surface too hard, leaders need to be strong enough to resist abrasion and land big fish but thin so as to not spook them, and rods need to have the backbone to control a six pound fish headed for timber but also be able to hit a teacup at 20 feet. Catching these fish can require standing on some pretty thin "ledges" when it comes to your equipment.

I've been searching for the Ultimate Carp Rod (UCR) for sometime - really since I first started fishing for them in the late 90's. At first I used a 9 foot, 6 wt. Sage RPL because it was the same rod I used for light redfishing on the coast and for small bonefish in the Yucatan. This rod definately had the backbone to handle any cast/wind and when combined with a Lamson LP-3 (one of my favorite reels of all time), it could stop a small freight train. Problems arose when I had to cast it short (<25>

And that's what the majority of carp fishing at Ray Roberts is . . . short range. Most of our casts are 20-25 ft. Subtract 9 feet for a leader and you don't have much flyline past the tip of the rod. Many of today's "fast" action flyrods do not begin to load (and therefore become accurate) until you have 30-35 feet of FLYLINE past the tip. What usually happens when you try to cast one of these rods at short range is you crash the butt of the leader and/or last few feet of flyline into the water on top of your target. Carp REALLY don't like this and will respond with a boil of mud and a wake streaking across the flat.

What is needed in a UCR is a rod that is not so fast in the upper third of the blank but that has enough stiffness in the lower third to give you fish-fighting "backbone."

Length is another consideration. A nine foot flyrod is not going to load at short range as fast as a shorter rod. A seven and a half foot rod will give you another foot and a half of flyline out there to help straighten a leader - and we've all read our Lefty and know that a straight leader is a good thing. This reduction can only be carried so far - accuracy at distance drops dramatically when a rod gets shorter than 7 feet. As I said, MOST of our casts are at short range. Every trip, however, gives us an opportunity to throw a "Hail Mary" at a departing drum or large bass on the edge of a flat. All of a sudden, an angler needs to throw 50 or 60 feet of line . . . NOW . . . with a minimum of false casts. Shorter, slower rods are not very good at this; a UCR needs to be between 7.5 and 8 feet long.

One last criteria - it helps if the rod has a "saltwater" setup. A full wells grip and fighting butt to battle large fish and larger stripping and snake guides to clear line quickly and get fish on the reel.

Well, I have found a happy middle ground. It is the Temple Fork Oufitters TiCrX 7'6" 6 wt. This rod is fast, like the rest of the "X's", but not. It has a softer tip and will throw a nice loop and straighten a leader at 18 feet (yes, I measured it!). The rod still has enough backbone in the butt to lean on BIG fish. I caught a 9.5 lb. carp with it about a month ago and had no problem getting the fish in. Luckily, I was fishing a new, 12 lb. bass leader and could really pull on the fish - the rod bent deep into the butt section but I could tell it was no where near "stressed". That same butt section strength will enable this rod to throw a quick 70 footer with 2 false casts.

The rod has a full wells grip and large guides. The fighting butt is my only real "gripe" with the rod - it's too big. Unlike Sir Mix-a-Lot, I don't like big butts and the folks at TFO put the same size fighting butt on all the TiCrX models (I understand this - it saves them $$ and enables you to purchase a great rod at $250). I'm a fanatic about rod/reel balance and want that rod to balance right under my thumb - about an inch back from the edge of the grip. The standard butt balances just fine on the 9' models but puts too much weight on the back of the little 7.5 footer. With my venerable LP-3, the balance point was two inches up from the back of the grip. So, my rod received a much needed "buttectomy." I removed the fighting butt and about the last1/3" of threaded reel seat (after measuring the fit of the largest reel foot I would use) then attached a smaller, one inch fighting butt. This moved the balance point to the middle of the handle - acceptable, for now. The addition of a light, modern, large arbor reel like a Lamson Litespeed or Ross Evolution will make it PERFECT! Check out the photo above - you can tell the difference between my "semi-custom" 6wt. and a standard TiCrX (you can also see this rod in action in the video further down the blog).

This same outfit will be great for redfish (I'll let you know in three weeks when I get back from South Carolina) and as a canoe rod for bass. It's a quick, ACCURATE little fish fighter that would make a great addition to your warmwater arsenal!

Clearly Better Fishing!

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Many people ask me if the fishing at Ray Roberts is as good as I make it out to be (this is BEFORE they go on a trip). People find it hard to believe that there are miles of clear flats just an hour from Dallas or Ft. Worth. "Is it REALLY like fishing on the the coast?", they will ask, adding "I've seen Ray Hubbard (or Lewisville, Lavon, Lake Worth, etc.) and you can't see a thing in it."

Well, sorry for the cliche, but we'll let this picture say a thousand words. I took this two years ago on one of the west-side flats (the camera had a UV filter but NOT a polarizing filter). I was standing in about a foot of water, the angler is in 5-6 inches - the shoreline is 75-80 yards past him. This flat extends about a quarter mile down the shoreline and takes us two to three hours to fish. On a good day we'll easily spot 150 fish on this flat - "SPOT" being the key word.

Roberts is a VERY clear lake by North Texas standards. It is a newer lake so it doesn't have 50-60 years of silt and sediment to get stirred up. It also has a limited upstream drainage and large areas of rocky shorline. All this adds up to a lake with amazing clarity. We even spearfish in parts of it!

So, the answer to the question is "YES, it's really like saltwater flats fishing." Big fish tailing in clear water, tricky presentations and reel-clearing runs. Give me a call and I'll show you . . . (940)391-9480!

The Brothers Bollinger

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:36:00 +0000

Fishing Report - 6/01

I took Bruce and Burt Bollinger out Sunday for a full day trip. Eventhough the wind was a relentless 15-20 mph out of the south, we found fish and were able to land about a dozen. Damsel and dragonflies of multiple species are all over the flats and the carp are FEEDING like there is no tomorrow.

The lake was about 2 inches high on Sunday and this had fish back in the grass. We had to take shots at several as they came out of the grass, moving to another feeding spot. Several of the MONSTER carp (20+ lbs.) were spotted but the one we had a shot at wanted nothing to do with Burt's offering. I don't really know what we would have done if he hooked it - he was fishing a 5 wt. rod and the reel only had about 100 yds. of backing.

Bruce seemed to have a talent for catching the unusual: he got a carp to jump - TWICE, caught a gar, and then brought in a catfish.

This is a great time of the year to hit the flats . . . everything that swims in the lake is cruising the shallows. In addition to the above species, we also saw drum, buffalo, and bass.

(Strong winds are forecast for the next several days with clouds and rain into the weekend - I start guiding FULL TIME next week so a little time to tie flies and rest the flats is welcome. I don't know about you, but this has been the windiest spring I can remember - I've only been able to fish about 1/10th of the flats on the lake. When things settle and we get some SE or SW winds, some really PRIME spots will open up -- call me soon! (940)391-9480 )

Carp Video 2008

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:35:00 +0000

Video and editing by Shannon Drawe.

A Great Afternoon

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:03:00 +0000

Fishing Report - 5/25

I took Bart from Tailwaters out Sunday afternoon. Great day, beautiful weather, excellent casting, and picky, PICKY fish. The carp are definately on their post-spawn pattern - rooting in the shallows and grass, tailing up clams and crayfish, even taking a few damsels from the surface. Bart (an expert dry fly trout angler) pointed out a flying ant hatch and I'm sure some of those have found their way into some carp gullets.

Bart showed up with one of the new Winston Boron IImx 6 wts. Balanced perfectly by a Waterworks Force reel, it is one of the best light saltwater rods I've ever cast - it had no problem shooting a quick 70 footer and then loading up SHORT to hit a tea cup at 25 feet. WHAT A ROD! I've cast several of the "new - light" 6 wts (helios, Loomis, Sage) and this one is the top of the bunch.

Water temps are rising nicely and the lake is currently* a few inches below pool (conservation pool of Ray Roberts is 632.5 feet above sea level). The "east" flats are holding a GOOD number of fish - we easily saw over 200 carp in the four hours we fished. Clarity is VERY good for this time in May and this combined with the Memorial Day traffic led to some selective, skittish carp (more so than normal) - they wanted everything perfect. Presentation, retrieve, pattern, leader . . . it all had to be ON. We were able to stick several along with a few gar. Interesting side notes include a VERY large drum that refused all offerings, a new bird species for the "Ray Roberts list" (an Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus), and some absolutely MONSTER fish tailing at the deep edge of one of the flats. On later inspection of a photo, these had to be large channel cats; nothing else has a deeply forked, pointed, gray tail (and these tails were easily ten inches across). I don't know if they'll take anything (catfish can be tricky with a fly), but I'm going back soon with a 9wt. to try. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they were tailing in well over three feet of water. I'll let you figure out how long they had to be!

[* I say "currently" because as of this writing (Tues. evening), Ray Roberts is now over two inches high. We have dodged the bullet with the rain this spring but not this morning - the Denton airport recorded 2.88" of rain in two hours. Luckily, the Trinity River in Gainesville crested at about 2pm and is coming down - much of the water was absorbed by the relatively dry soils. The lake will be off-color for a few days with the west arm taking a little longer to clear.]

What the . . .

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:27:00 +0000

I'm always amazed at the things we see during my guide trips. Many of the flats that we fish are far from the "beaten path" on Ray Roberts - sometimes the only footprints I see are those that I recognize as my Marlwalker prints from the previous week, month, or even season. I've walked up on feral hogs, deer, bass anglers sleeping in their boats, snapping turtles, dopers tending their "weed" patch, TPWD biologists, one VERY angry skunk, more drunk red-necks than I can count ("Hey Bud! Check this dude out. He's fly fishin'. Ain't no trout in here!"), and one couple performing an amazing feat of biology and balance on the back of a WaveRunner.

But for shear "Freak Factor", nothing has topped this. I was out with a client two summer's ago and stumbled across this snake (a nonpoisionous Diamondback Water Snake - Nerodia rhombifer). Surely he did not chase down this catfish but he was giving it his all trying to swallow it. We watched him for a good 4-5 minutes and finally got too close for his comfort; he spit out the fish and swam off about 8 feet (all this in just a few inches of water). We left him alone to continue our fishing and when we returned - there he was - lying in the water with a 9 inch, catfish-shaped LUMP a few inches past his head. Obviously too stuffed to move, he chose to stand ground and do his best Cottonmouth impression (we weren't fooled).

Casting Class Follow-up

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:57:00 +0000

A big THANK YOU to all those who participated in our fly fishing class this past Sunday night. If you took the class and are now in the mind-numbing exercise of purchasing equipment, please feel free to call or email me with any questions.

BTW - the book I mentioned in the class is titled Essential Fly Fishing by Tom Meade (Lyons & Burford).

For anyone interested in a class (and could not make it Sunday night), please check back - new sessions and classes are in the works!

Joel

Casting Class

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Fri, 16 May 2008 05:02:00 +0000

I will be instructing an Introduction to Fly fishing class this Sunday (5-18) in Denton. This class will be hosted by Texasflycaster.com and will start at 6:00pm. A follow-up class will be in early June. Contact me or go to texasflycaster.com for more details. Space is limited!

A New Season

hays98@verizon.net (Joel Hays) — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:19:00 +0000

Greetings All!

A new season of flats fishing at Ray Roberts has begun! After the literal "wash-out" that was last season, this summer looks to be shaping up nicely.

For those of you that don't know, we had the flood of the century last Spring. Ray Roberts went up about 8 feet in two weeks - effectively killing the carp fishing last summer. The fish were still there, doing their thing, but it just wasn't fun trying to catch fish in the flooded vegetation. The bright side is that the flats received a needed scrubbing and look great. I scouted one of my "afternoon" flats this past Sunday and counted over 200 happy carp - and caught 6 in about 30 minutes.

The carp have finished their spawn and are started to feed in a usual pattern. Gar are in the middle of their spawn and are sharing the flats with the carp. They will take a fly now and go absolutly NUTS when hooked - and nothing's more fun than trying to get your fly back from an upset gar! I began to get the black buffalo dialed in last August and will be on them again as soon as they show a predictable pattern. Water temps are warming nicely and the fighting ability of the fish is increasing proportionately. At this writing, Ray Roberts is about an inch above normal conservation pool.

We have dodged some bullets with the last few rounds of thunderstorms/rain. Everything has either gone just north and fallen in the Red River drainage or into the Brazos/Trinity to the south.

Keep your fingers crossed, folks. This could be one to remember.