Tropical Storm April

In March, I fished – with a fly rod from my kayak – when the springtime Texas wind would allow.

 

Which was twice…I think.No worries I told myself.

There’s always April with its warm weather, great fishing, and kinder, gentler winds.

Except that the wind hasn’t abated. If anything, it has increased. 

 

Day after day after day, howling for hours on end.

 

Chicago might be the Windy City but it has nothing on Texas during big bass season.

 

The wind still roars, peeling paint off the side of houses. Blowing the gel coat right off of bass rigs. Ripping flags to shreds. Whipping wildfires into a frenzy. Stripping the blue right out of bluebonnets. 

 

And causing ShareLunker bass to get skinny from all that finning in place trying to stay with their beds.But this, this, THIS is the LAST straw.

 

That’s what I thought when I saw today’s National Weather Service forecast for North Texas’ Tropical Storm April:Today: Sunny, with a high near 68. Windy, with a northwest wind 25 to 30 mph increasing to between 35 and 40 mph. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.

Really?!? Really?!? REALLY?!?

AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

There, I’ve let some steam off and ranted a bit.

 

Ok, I think I’m better…besides, there’s always May.

 

Ray Robert’s Dark Side

Fruitless day of April bass fishing on Lake Ray Roberts yesterday thanks to the paint peeling wind and the muddy water it produces in some of the lake’s creeks.

Kayaking around, I began to wonder about what to do. That’s when I start to see these aliens feeding all over the place.

Catching a carp on the fly...crossing over to the dark side of fly fishing!

So I rummage around in the fly boxes and come up with a black Wooly Bugger with an orange conehead.

A Rob Woodruff East Texas chain pickerel special.

Will it work on carpe diem?

Only one way to find out.
An hour of fruitless casts later, I finally hear the Darth Vader voice “Luke, come to the dark side.”

Fish on!

My first Ray Bob carp on the fly! After a bulldog like tussle, slid this fish in and took a picture.

Then I went back to the dark side and tried to do it again. Missed a couple of more, actually took it from them on the hook set.

Now this is not something I’d want to do everyday (big bass on the fly, big bass on the fly, and more big bass on the fly please!) but it was a fun change of pace.

By the way, for all of the talk of this being a “Freshwater Bonefish,” no serious testing of the drag was involved on catching this guy. Instead, the fight reminded me of a Texas redfish on the coast.

One more thing: North Texas’ Ray Roberts must be the king of carp fishing.

They are EVERYWHERE on that lake.

D-Vader, on second thought, maybe the dark side of Texas fly fishing doesn’t look so bad.