Rockport, TX - Labor Day Weekend

[Animal Chris]

Made it down to Rockport for the long weekend and did fairly well, all things considered. Hit the shallows of St. Joe's Island early Friday morning and worked the surface. Managed a couple of specks in the 18" range and had several blowups on a diver type pattern (Red head / White body). After the sun got up and and what little wind we had quit blowing, I went to some shell reefs I know in about 7 ft. of water. I then went to an intermediate 8 wt. and a red grizzley/white tail sea ducer and got into the fish. About one trout of every 5 would have been a keeper. The main problem was being able to get the fly down deep enough. I kept 3 and my wife and I enjoyed a good fresh fish sandwich for lunch and released the rest in good shape. The rest of the weekend was spent doing the family thing. Monday morning, while on the way to put the boat on the trailer, I hit a few of the local gas wells and picked up several "dink" specks. All in all a great weekend. Hope everyone has a good week. Tight Lines, AC

[THE GAME]

Sounds productive to me.
Nice report

[Animal Chris]

The bay is full of bait and if this weather holds, forget about dove shooting. I will be gunning for reds. A little Friday night HS football and Saturday morning redfish. Put the Watchman in the kayak and watch the game from Light House Lakes. Life doesn't get any better.

[bones]

Glad you had a great time. Hope the fishin' has improved there since the terrible '80's when there were more shrimpboats on the water than fishing boats. Used to one could back-up to one of those well-heads and box a limit of real nice trout for each angler on the boat, all before lunch. Then there was the shrimpboat invasion that wiped out most all of the trout and reds in the bay. My last futile attempt at angling those waters was in ~1991 or'92, in the middle of the bay between Key Alegro and Allyn's Bight, I estimated ~85 shrimpers dragging the bay that morning, simultaneously.

I keep a few heavy duty clousers in my arsenal for that "just in case" situation of needing to get a little deeper than the usual flats depths (I have no sinking line, most of my flyfishing is in kneedeep water).. I outfit them with pretty heavy dumb-bell eyes, and minimize the amount of material used on the belly and wing in order to reduce the overall bouyancy of the finished product. I also double the number of flashy strands to make the bait more visible in the deeper water. Much harder to cast with a 6wt., but it is a short learning curve and one can accomodate after a few hooks in one's hat or earlobe. Also, ya gotta allow plenty of time for the bait to sink.

Weather is much nicer in past few days, time for another POC outing.

[Animal Chris]

but not in those numbers. HOpefully the numbers will continue to go down.
I started out around Allyns and worked that area pretty well. As far as the "sinking" line, I usually carry at least a spool rigged with an intermediate line. With as much wind as we can get along the coast, at times I find myself using it instead of floating. It can also add an interesting angle to topwater flies. I don't pull the heavy lines out until we have some real cold weather. I don't really like casting them. Tight Loops, AC

[bones]

Parks and Wildlife wants all of the shrimpers off the water. They are not issuing new licenses and are offering "buy-outs" to some of those close to retirement. No licenses are transferable or sellable to another shrimper. This is good.
80% of the shrimp consumed at the table are farm raised......we don't need shrimpboats anymore. All of the shrimpboats in Texas certainly would make a nice reef about 60 miles off-shore. I would like to include the crabberboats, also.

Get those shrimpers off the water and the bays will be teaming with trout,reds,flounder, crabs and all of the etceteras you can think of.

Dove season off to a slow start.........the usual limit I bag behind the house did not show up this year. Only 6 showed up in the brief time I awaited them..............none left...........had a singlet, a doublet, and a triplet...........Browning Auto-5 spoke with authority.

Time to load-up the deerfeeders.

[THE GAME]

They can't be compared in my opinion.I have been doing both all my life.Don't get me wrong dove hunting is fun. I just look better in a photo holding a 10 lb bass or a big red than I do holding a shotgun and a dove.
Now bow hunting is a different story.That will make your ticker skip too.

[Animal Chris]

http://www.scatexas.org

I think this group is doing the best job of all, in terms of reducing the shrimper boats.

[bones]

Never knew these folks exist. Sounds like a great organization. Leave it to Parks and Wildlife to engage the assistance of the private sector to do something like this. Private sector organizations can expedite issues far quicker than government agencies, the privates don't have to wallow around in the usual red tape that encumbers the government.

I just joined, and have forwarded the web address to other conservationists friends. Hope I can get down x Seabrook for the banquet.

To all you other readers:

www.scatexas.org

give it a click, browse thru it and consider joining .

[Animal Chris]

in your area are. We have several in the greater Houston area that meet quite frequently. Some great guys. Glad to have you on board. Also, American Rodsmiths has put out a SCA series rod and the SCA has some "logo" lures. Tight Lines, AC