South padre Island/Port Isabel trip/report

[THE GAME]

I hit one of my favorite wading spots this morning shortly after sunrise.When I pulled up I saw someone else in my honey hole.It was another flyfisherman. An older gentleman from the area named Bob.I had met him before. The water was perfect and the wind was almost nonexistant. What little wind there was, was hitting me on the back.I spent the first 30 to 45 minutes casting an olive and white closer with out a bite.Then I hear Bob hooping it up. I look up and he's holding a little red.I can't let him out do me so I give him a wave and keep casting.I come upon 4 sunken , encrusted tires in about 2 feet of water.Each one of them are about 40 feet from me in a semicircle.My bass fishing experience takes over and I cast past one of them and strip the fly past it.Thump, fish on.Its a little mangrove snapper.I unhook him and make another cast. Thump, another small snapper.Not what i hoped for but it's fish.A couple more casts with out a bite. So I cast to one of the other tires and catch another mangrove. Now I'm wishing I had my stringer and the other two fish. So I spend the next hour casting to these four tires.I catch a mangrove off of one then cast to the next one.After I fish the last tire in the lineup I go back to the first one.I just keep catching little snappers.Finaly I guess I caught all the hungry ones and I move on.Ahead about 50 feet I see a large wake being pushed.I can see the fish but it does not look like a red. Its pail grayish white.I cast to it and it does not even check up.I made a few more casts to it before it dissapeared. Not even a nudge. I was almost afraid that it might snatch up my fly. This fishes head is almost as big as mine.Thats pretty big.
Later i stopped by THE SHOP in Port Isabel and tell Larry haines about my morning experience. He informs me that the big fish I saw is a pet of sorts.They have been seeing it there for a couple years now. He said it is an albino black drum.Larry told me a few people have got the fish to take a fly but he always brakes them off.
I'll take my 10 wt surf rig next time and straighten that right up.Maybe.
Well the day wore on and I only managed to catch one small red.There was rat reds running all over the place but every time I saw one it was hauling tail.It saw me first. I saw a nice Jack Crevalle that afternoon and tried making a few cast to him with no luck.I could not get it interrested in my fly. It was harassing a large school of hand sized bait fish. At first I thought they were mullet but a man fishing there had caught some in his through net. They looked like freshwater shad. Ive caught 3 Big jacks in the surf that tipped 40 inches and a few small ones in that very spot on baitcasting tackle.They are the hardest pulling fish I have ever tangled with. I was not sure how the fly rod would handle one of them. I tried anyway.
Well i hit a couple other places without any luck.I had been casting that fly rod for 9 hours straight and was getting hungry and my casting was getting sloppy. So I packed it in and headed for the house.
Not an overly productive day but at least I did not get skunked.I was hoping for a few nice reds and maybe a trout are two, but thats fishing.
There's alway Next Time

[bones]

Sounds like a nice day on the water, though. A lousy day at fishing is much preferable to a nice day at work.

The tires you were chunking at...........GREAT target practice!!! One could spend a lot of time right there with the wind at different angles to fine-tune shots for accurracy.......a great opportunity to place one's self with the wind at the very worst angle........ Some of these days you will be presented with a one-shot-only opportunity at ......maybe that albino drum..........and you'll need to be precise. And I am certain you will agree, there is such a thing as buck-fever with a flyrod. Ya get so nervous you thrash around 'till you're wrapped up in about 45 feet of flyline.

Try some reds with a 6wt., with Clousers -size 6 hooks..................awesome.

[THE GAME]

That is one of the things i really need to improve on.Presentation. I can get the fly out there but it is not always a soft landing.I think that is part of why the albino drum paid no attention to the fly.Not a good presentation.
I agree with the buck fever. I was trying to hurry and get the fly to him before it got out of sight.I kinda PUNCHED it to him. I also need to work on getting the cast out with fewer false casts.I see people casting with about three hauls.Back cast, forward cast , back cast , then cast.I was watching to old man cast that day. He could get his line out quick but his fly would slap the water behind him. His back cast was coming to, or below 9:00 oclock.I was not about to say atything to him. I can do it that way but gravity work against me on keeping everything from touching the water.Practice practice.

[bones]

I wouldn't have helped out ol' Bob either.......after all, he was poaching your favorite honey hole!!! I'da figured he was just scaring fish over to my direction.

I've found using size 4 or 6 hooks in tying flies (preferably 6's) makes for a lighter fly with a nicer presentation. I also use long shank 6's. Those window weight 2's are difficult to cast (refering to gravity) and hit the water like an anvil. And you are right about the hauls........need to be minimized.........cannot get that through my nephew's thick skull. Seems he wants to bullwhip the fish to death.

Ya taught me something today.......watch other people's techniques.......watch what they do and learn from their mistakes and their successes. You observed Bob's sloppy technique and figured out your gravity problem!!

Weather is nice here in Hill Country....was 62 degress at dawn this morning. Having some redfish on the half shell this evening.

[THE GAME]

Sounds good. What time will it be ready. I'm about to cave in. Everytime i get around someone flycasting I watch them like a hawk.It seems to help me figure out what I am doing right and wrong.I supposed to start attending a fly tieing class down here . They have it during the winter months every wed night from 7 to 9 starting in november at the fly shop in Port Isabel..The best part of it all is it is free.He told me he has a few extra vises and supplies the materials.Just can't beat a deal like that. I have never tied a fly in my life and am looking forward to it.Many years ago we used to get togather and tie crappie jigs. Every fall a feeder creek to Pat Mayse Lake would fill up with sand bass.We died Buck tail in blue die. It turned kindof grayish.We tied it on a 1/8 oz. crappie jig.The sand bass love this little jig.We lost a lot of them due to the trees in the creek so we had to make a lt of them.
Well I'll shut up.
Later