How bout this mild weather in August!  Really feels great and from what Capt. Chuck Naiser (naiser@dbstech.com) tells me, fishing was fantastic yesterday in the Rockport area.  He also said he expects the tropical depressions to improve the fishing for the next few weeks even more!  I usually find lots of reasons to stay close to home in August, where the air conditioning is controllable, and the inshore fish generally are catchable only at dark thirty in the morning and late in the evening, as the tides are low and the water warms at mid day to an uncomfortable level for red fish in the shallows.  Maybe this year our wonderful fall fishing will extend into the middle of August. . . . . . .

 

In reading the latest ‘Currents’ (CCA Newsletter) I was interested in an article by George Bolin on the present condition of oyster beds, their importance to the aqua structure, and their sensitivity to pollution.  It brought back a memory of a day fishing with Chuck Naiser many years ago when we used spinning and casting rods (it was at the end of a long day fly fishing) that taught me a lesson I shall never forget.  He parked his boat that late afternoon in the back of St. Charles Bay and briefly described to me the general layout of an oyster bed that was not entirely visible.  He suggested I go that-a-way and he went the other way, but I kept the distance between us no more than a long cast!  Almost immediately he had a nice fat trout on and gave me that look we all hate to see.  I cast furiously and was either snagged on a shell or no fish all the while he was catching a trout on virtually every cast.  He would say, “come over here!” and like I say, I was only a cast distant from him and far too proud to shoulder in on his spot.  When the score became about 20 to 1, I finally humbled myself and stood next to Chuck.  I cast in the same place over and over and still he out caught me 20 to 1!  What I have come to realize since, is he was fishing a 1/16^th once jig head with plastic and I was fishing ¼ once.  He was using 6 pound line and I was using 12 pound.   My retrieve had to be faster to keep from getting snagged on the shell and he was able to slowly fish the shell working the jig up and down without getting snagged and could feel the difference of a subtle bite or shell.  As in fly fishing, presentation is all important.  Also since that lesson I have become an advocate of light rods, light lines, and light jig heads, or even better over shell, is no weight what-so-ever!  A long rod and 6# line will cast a hook and plastic and allow you to ‘twitch’ and let sink very slowly!

 

Oyster beds can become feasting grounds for trout and red’s in the fall and winter months.  Many of the small bait fish and immature oysters, worms, and all kind of critters live among these shells.  Generally these beds rise above a bottom and become more scattered around the edges, and a depression or a shallow channel diverts water flows into and out of and around the beds.  These are places the feasting occurs.  Think of food scraps falling from a table and your dog sits there in anticipation.  In a rising tide, as in setting the table, the dog watches as food is place upon the table and will wait patiently for it to fall and at times will jump on the table to pull a morsel off.  Red fish will get up on the table during a rising tide and many times be grubbing for snacks among the shell showing their tails as they forage.  Great targets for the fly fisher but the fish are very spooky (like the dog would be if he got caught on the table!).

 

Without going into a lot of detail on the ‘condition’ of our oyster beds, just let me ask if any of you notice there seems to be fewer and fewer than there was 20 years ago.  For just a quick climb up on my soapbox, I would suggest to the oystermen and maybe some regulation by the state of Texas require all the shell from harvested oysters be returned to the beds they were taken from instead of making new roadway base and even decorating our roof tops at the coast!  I owned a house on Copano Bay and vividly recall a dozen or more oyster boats dredging the bottom every morning, week after week, while I enjoyed my coffee on the deck.  The sounds there what ever they call oyster dredges would make, was that of a road grader over rock.  By late morning the bow of their boats would be nearly submerged with the weight of a hundred burlap bags of oysters piled high.  I could only wonder how many smolt and fingerling game fish died as they dredged and how many others were without the protection the reef offered.  Ah well, maybe the CCA can use there political muscle to protect the oyster beds.

 

I am arranging a trip for Bonefish etc. to the lower Yucatan the last week of October and will be fishing with my friend Rick Gracy and my youngest son Ryan with our wives Linda and Kristi while staying at Rick’s beach house near Xcalak near the Belize border.  It is a trip this old ‘field and streamer’ can afford and is a genuine experience.  I believe I will simply close the shop during this period on October 25^th and be back for business the 3^rd of November.  If you have anything you need prior to my departure, please keep these dates in mind.  I will remind everyone at a later date.

 

I’ve had many interesting and informative stories related to me recently on trips from Alaska to Loreto in Mexico, as well as numerous experiences in the mountain states.  I thought I would share one story of Bob Ferguson, Capt. USN retired, of a trip he recently made to Loreto for Dolphin (the fish!).  Bob ties the Wonderfurl leaders I tout in the shop as ‘the best’ (www.wonderfurl.@bci.net) leaders I have ever seen.  He and a group caught many, many Dorado’s (dolphin fish) and as a testament to his leaders, 7 guys fished exclusively with the Wonderfurl leaders (one leader each person!) without a wind knot or a single broken leader while no less than 15 fly rods were broken during the trip!  A bull Dorado is one tough customer with the larger requiring a minimum of 45 minutes on a 10/11 weight rod.  The Sage RPLXi’s were among the only rod survivors!

 

After prematurely mentioning my ‘good deal’ for an offshore trip out of Aransas Pass in a previous newsletter, I have made arrangements for a ‘test run’ on the 19^th of September and if the equipment and trip (10 hour) are what I anticipate, I will be booking at least two, maybe more trips offshore this fall.  Stay tuned, I promise it will happen!!!!  I have a list started already of those expressing an interest – cost about $135 per person – 3 or four people per trip.

 

Dennis O. Freeman

RODMAKERS

13457 Blanco Road

San Antonio, TX 78216

www.rod-makers.com

rodmaker@rod-makers.com

210-479-3477

210-479-3488 (fax)