Patagonia Marlwalkers

Dear Patagonia,

On a recent fishing trip to Port Aransas I had a catastrophic Marlwalker blowout. After 15+ years of wear and tear, trips to Christmas Island, Los Roques, Belieze and numerous days fishing the oyster ridden flats of the Texas coast, these boots finally failed when I stepped into a mud hole on Brown and Roots flat and came out with no sole. The good thing was the day of fishing was almost over. The bad part was that there were redfish tails tempting me to stay and try one more cast, which of course I did, cutting my foot on an oyster bar and blowing my chance by spooking the red. Apparently redfish do not like profanity.

The amount of use and abuse these boots took was amazing. My new pair is on their way. What a great product.

Bassin with Tater

Tater is the best fishing buddy anyone could hope to have. He is one hell of a netter but his release of the fish is questionable at times. I'm not sure who likes fishing more.

Carp!

Lately I've been chasing carp out on the flats at Ray Roberts and having a great time. We arrived at dawn and were greeted by several fish milling about in ankle deep water. It Took a couple of casts before I put the fly where I wanted it and the line came tight after a long slow strip. I repeated this with several more fish and blew a number of opportunities. Sometimes the line just comes tight and other times the carp covered some ground in reckless fashion to inhale the fly (when this happens you almost forget they are carp and not redfish). They hit anything buggy, wooly boogers, puffs, and other goofy easily tied "carp flies." The location is great. It is close enough to not waste an entire day yet far enough away to feel like you are out of the city (saw many deer too).

Lake Emma and Her Surrounding Ponds

What else is there to do when it is 100 degrees in the shade? Roll up the pants legs and jump in after some bass. Tater and I were invited to chase bass and the fishing was amazing as always. I'm starting to think that Tater gets more excited when I catch a fish than I do. He doubles as an amazing net but his catch an release needs some work. The bass were killing anything that resembled a shad and most of the fish hit a sub surface deerhair shad fly (which shortly after landing a 5 lber I lost to some weeds on my back cast).

Sometimes Life Slows Down

Sailfish Flies

Getting that itch again and since it is the off season for sails and I don't have endless funds to chase them, I am stuck tying flies that remind me how bad ass fly fishing for sailfish is.

Full Moon Bass

Full moon means late night top-water action. Grabbed the five weight and head lamp and hit the local pond. Fished Dahlberg Diving Frog. The fish were hanging right on the edge of the weeds. Saw a shooting star and caught two bass in a little over an hour. Not a bad way to spend an evening.