I'm over in Mesquite...forget the stocked Rainbows... they're about as
interesting as goldfish. The native, wild fish are much more colorful and
interesting. Fishing is a little slow right now, but as the skies brighten
and the water warms it can get to be a lot of fun.

For now, beaded nymphs and wooly buggers with a strand or three of something
flashy just might work, but the fish are holding deep and feeding
infrequently right now.

In a little bit....damsel-fly nymphs and chartreuse attracturesin the same
depths will bring up handsome warmouths, pumpkinseeds and such to smile at
and tell "grow big" before releasing. A little later, they hit the spawning
beds and they become easy pickings, if that's what you want. Any ol'
rubber spider can work.

I give them a rest then. After the spawn.... Mosquitoes in between the
hatches and Muddlers if nothing else seems to work. McGinty's also work
pretty well for me well into Autumn. but I have this lingering sense that if
I could devise a pattern to match the more prevalent honey-bee convincingly
it would be killer...the trick seems to be making it look convincingly
struggling in the surface tension.

Somewhat counter-intuitevly...10 or 12 sized Royal Coachmen slipped under
willow leaves seem to draw a lot of attention. And itty-bitty ants or
beetle imitations or scuds can be deadly, except when they aren't interested
And that happens.

I have a real problem with TP&W stocking trout in North Texas ponds. Trout
are glamour fish and therefore popular to talk about. Trout are also
cold-water fish and what's the point in stocking them where the water will
likely get hot enough to kill them? Seems to me, the money would be better
spent stocking fish that would have a good chance of lasting several years
and pro-creating.

So the guys with the worms out fished you when it came to bringing in the
hatchery fish. Those were aquarium rainbows. I won't begrudge them their
fun, but it was kinda' like fishing for mutts by dragging a steak through a
dog pound. I can see that it works, but where's the challenge or the fun in
it.

There are wild fish, challenging, but takeable on a fly, real close to you.
Warm-water fish can be a lot of fun. There are good trout waters as close
as Oklahoma and the Arkansas Ozarks and if you can aim west....New Mexico
and Colorado aren't THAT far away if you are obsessed with Salmonids.
Nothing wrong with that...I just might bump into you back at the campsite it
you travel there.

But I have some serious problems with dumping little trout into a pond in
December, banking on them all being caught before the water temperature
kills them in June. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, if the game commission
spent a little more time and a little less money they might actually
contributed to the on-going health of the pond by planting fish that
belonged there.

Skip the planted rainbows. Discover the fish that belong in this neck of
the woods. They'll give you a better fight and learning how to catch them
will give you a better appreciation of the rivers, lakes, streams etc. you
have around you to explore. You're well located to sneak up to the upper
waters of the Trinity and the Brazos... They're fish rich all the way down
to the Gulf of Mexico.

There's an A.K. Best quote that seems to sum it all for me "The fishing is
always good, the catching...."

-Doc


"D Screen" wrote in message
...
I've only been to one meeting and one trip so far. Just joined the
Dallas Flyfishers in December. Heard about the Brazos in general but not
the tailwaters in particular. Going to start tying my own flies in March
and chasing mostly largemouth bass and the occassional striped bass at
Texoma with my fly rods. :-) Headed to Texoma in the morning and taking
the 8wt. Will post some pictures on the ABFP forum if we do any good. I
suspect I need a full sinking line to catch the stripers this time of year
not the floating lines I have now. Might have to drege them up with slab
spoons.

Don


Cyli wrote:



Have they told you about the tailwater on the Brazos just below the
Possum Kingdom Dam? I saw some good sized stockers caught there when
I canoed starting about a mile below there. Sort of combat fishing,
but looked like fun. That was early in the year (March), but I
suspect that nearer the dam it's probably good all summer.

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)