Jen's Red

Finished project

Finally finished up the drawing of Jen's redfish she caught in Louisiana with Captain Greg Moon.

Picket Fence Fish

Craft Craft Craft all day long

Picket Fence Fish made from reclaimed fence pickets.

3rd Clutch In Texas Heat Was A Success

Only one hatched out of 4. The mother bluebird vanished and dad bluebird took over raising the lone baby. He did a great job. The baby survived several days of 100+ degree days with the heat shields and the mister set up on it. This year we had 7 of 14 hatch and all 7 fledged. Not a bad year. Good work bluebirds. 

Toes out and ready to go. 

Dad Blue in the background watching over his baby. 

Summertime Carp on Ray Roberts

Casey and I made took a morning to find some carp. The first fish was a crawler that had more of himself out of the water than in. Casey made some great cast to cruising fish  and was hooking up all around me. Finally started spanking some fish when I found them buried up in the weeds. Their tail would give them away and they would appear out of nowhere. The good thing about this type of fishing was that you could almost walk on top of them before they would spook. I was basically high sticking them, dangling the fly in front of them until they saw or felt the fly, followed but a gentle sip and then an explosion from the grass. We did pretty good for the day considering the clouds and wind were our constant companions.

The Blue Herons were very busy feeding their very demanding babies

Casey releases another carp in front of me (sporting the Redfish Tail Shirt).

The water levels on all the lakes are very low. The shoreline is covered with all sorts of tracks and trails. This one was the coolest and the one that I had no desire to follow. 

Life Cycle of the Swallowtail Butterfly

The fennel is covered with swallowtail caterpillars, cocoons and freshly emerged butterflies. 

Texoma Bass

Phil and I made a quick trip to Texoma to see if we could find some bass. We weren't disappointed. There was no rush to get out early and we just eased into the fishing day. Within a few minutes on the bank we were into the bass. The bass seemed to really like 3 inch Clousers in all colors as we worked our way down the rocks and the shoreline. The water level was so low that we were fishing new drop offs and the bass were hanging right on them. 50 foot cast would get you to the drop off and the line would come tight many times as you let the fly sink. The smallmouth were very happy.

3rd Batch Of Bluebirds In Texas Calls For The Super Heat Shield

Momma Bluebird decided to go for a third batch and layed egg number one today. It is June in Texas which means it will be getting hot so I had to step up the original heat shield. After researching the Bluebird Nut Cafe archives we decided that styrofoam could be the best solution to this heat problem. We zip tied the shields to the current, thin shields. Hopefully the styrofoam will hold up well and that the doldrums of summer can hold off for a little while longer.