We spent some time painting the exterior of our house this weekend, so I couldn’t get out to fish. Driving back from Home Depot I did make mental note of a few photos I wanted to capture later. So at the end of the day while everyone was resting I went out and grabbed these. Fishing photos coming soon!
Brian
I guess that’s what I’ve been lately – out of pocket. I haven’t been out a lot in the last month, but here are a few iPhone photos of what I have been up to lately.
First bass of the year. I’ve been going to one of my favorite ponds, trying to rouse up a few bluegill. No gills, but I have managed a few small bass. This pond was damaged during a repair to the dam, and I’m hoping this spring and summer things will pick up a little. This little bass was caught on a Black Ghost with chartreuse bucktail wing.
Largemouth Bass on Black Ghost
My daughter learns to fly fish. Last weekend I took my kids toi an event in East Texas called Fly Fish Texas. It was at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. There were casting instructors on hand, as well as fly tying classes, and plenty of fishing. My daughter received some good instruction and caught a few rainbow trout. Her very first on the fly. Way to go, Sis!
My Daughter's First on the Fly
Hill Country Getaway. I took the family down to hill country for a few days or relaxation. A nice cabin, cards, laying around, canoeing, kayaking, etc. We had a nice time.
Sunset Over Lake Buchanan
Driftwood on Lake Buchanan
Unexpected Photo Op. I went with my wife to the youth camp where she works this evening. I really love how sunsets look after a nice rain. We sure have some beautiful sunsets here in Texas.
After the Rain
Hopefully soon I’ll be back with more fish photos, and with an announcement of a fly fishing trip I’m taking later this year.
Tight lines!
Brian
Recently, one of my brothers had the great opportunity to share a deer hunt with a couple of heroes; men who bear the scars of their sacrificial service to our country while stationed in the middle east. After the hunt I got an earful from my brother about what a great time it was. Over the course of the weekend hunt, he discovered that the two men he hunted with are also fly fishermen. So, we hatched up a plan to send these two guys a little gift of some home tied flies. I tied a couple dozen, comprised of muddler minnows, cat’s whiskers, pheasant tail nymphs, foam hoppers, copper johns, black ghosts and llamas. We got them in the mail, and I got a great surprise last Sunday morning. Tim, one of the vets, emailed me that he was able to field test my flies on an outing in Colorado. That really made my day! It also inspired me. The fishing trip was arranged and sponsored by Project Healing Waters. In the next couple of weeks I am tying some flies and sending them to PHW. If you are a tyer, I encourage to to tie some and send them along. They can sure use them. Take a look at their site – they’re doing some really great things.
One final note – I always love seeing photos of people with fish caught on something I tied. I feel like I’m a part of someone else’s enjoyment. Thanks, Tim, for sending these along. Also, sincere thanks for your selfless service to our country.
Brian
Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge
I was determined to get out today and fly cast a little. I thought it would be nice to catch some fish on the first day of the year. Maybe in my mind I was thinking of it as sort of a blessing on the rest of the year. It was a little chilly and very windy, but I was able to bring a couple of bluegill to hand. I guess that counts. Mission Accomplished.
I’m about to do something I don’t usually do. I’m going to make a few new year’s resolutions. Why don’t I usually do this? I call it the “who am I kidding?” factor. Let’s face it – most people do not keep their resolutions the whole year. Maybe for a while, but things usually fizzle out after some time. Maybe you’re the exception. I hope so. I am definitely NOT the exception. So, in a way I guess I just don’t want to set myself up for failure. The other reason, is that I believe that if something is worth doing, then it’s worth starting whenever you think of it- why wait until January 1st? Having said that, here are a few of my resolutions (even if they don’t sound very specific or detailed).
1. I’m going to get into better physical shape because I believe it will help me live longer. That should be motivation enough, but I have more motivation. I am fly fishing in Montana for the better part of a week this Fall. I really want to be in shape for that trip.
2. I am going to read more books and watch less television. The motivation for this resolution is to simply avoid brain rot.
3. I will hone my fly tying skills. For me, fly tying and fly fishing is not quite the “Zen” experience that it seems to be for some. But, it is something I dearly love, and it is very therapeutic – whether I am tying or fishing. As a part of this goal, I am planning a high quality fly tying video. No promises on when, but it is coming.
That’s not all, but enough for now. I hope you have a blessed new year.
Brian
This year I had to purchase fishing licenses in four states: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Colorado. I feel very blessed.
I got out today for a few hours with Drew’s 6 wt rod. I like casting his, but it always takes me a little getting used to it. I went to a pond that is stocked with Rainbow Trout in the winter by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. No trout, but I did manage a couple of bluegill on a #14 Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph. It wasn’t too cold today, and there wasn’t much wind, so casting was really nice. A beautiful evening, and I can’t complain about not catching any trout. With a sunset like this, it’s hard to complain about anything.
Winter Sunset
I sat sat down and tied a new fly tonight. It’s a Llama bucktail streamer. I love the look of this fly. I need to get some floss so I can build up the body a little more, but overall I’m happy with the results. I know a game warden who just went hunting with a couple of wounded vets who are back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and during the hunt he discovered that a couple of the guys are also fly fishermen. We thought it would be fun to send them a couple dozen home tied flies. I’m including a couple of these Llamas, plus some Cat’s Whiskers, Pheasant Tail Nymphs, Muddler Minnows, Black Ghosts, Mickey Fins and more. I hope they catch some whoppers with these.
I just finished a few deer hair mouse (mice), a fly I’ve been wanting to try for a while . I have fished with store bought versions of these before, and in my experience they produce violent strikes. They ride top-water, and are usually tied weedless. I did not tie mine weedless because the pond I’m going to try them on does not have any surface vegetation to speak of. Also, I’ve heard from too many fly fishermen that “weedless” often equates to “fishless”. That’s not all I left off, though. I also left off the eyes and ears, mainly because I don’t think the fish can see them anyway. This fly seems to produce strikes that are “hard and fast”. I haven’t seen any bass trailing for a long time trying to get a good look at these. So I think this fly, which is roughly the shape and silhouette of a mouse will do the trick. We’ll see how it goes.
This is the first deer hair fly I tied. I also just finished some cone-head muddler minnows I’m looking forward to fishing. It’s getting cold around here, so it looks like I’m in for more tying and less fishing for a few months.
For a couple of years I have been interested in and kept myself entertained by iPhoneography. Many of the photos on my site are taken with iPhones, so I thought I’d dedicate a page strictly to photos captured on an iPhone, and edited with ios apps.
Here is an example of the power of editing applications that are available for iOS.
Image as shot with no editing
Same image, but after editing with SnapSpeed for iOS
I hope you enjoy. You can view the page selecting from the page menu at the top of this site, or by clicking here.
Here are a few sites you’ll find helpful if you’re into iphoneography.
http://iphoneographywithterilou.blogspot.com
http://iphoneographycentral.com
As a young child I was in awe of my father and brothers, as every year they’d prepare for a week in advance of the opening of deer season. Being an observer, and not a participant for several years contributed to the mythological feel of the whole hunting experience for me. I saw all the advance work, and all of the fruit of the trip, as I’d walk into our friend’s walk-in cooler where a dozen deer would be hanging to age before home processing. But I never actually witnessed the actual hunt, not that I was completely uninformed. In my family it’s a tradition that whenever we’d have venison for dinner (a treat) the person who had harvested the venison we were eating would always recount the taking of the deer. So, as the backstrap is put on the table, grab a dinner roll and save some room for apple pie, because this is the story of my first deer hunt.
As I said, I spent a few years just watching my dad and brothers doing what I desperately wanted to do. I just wanted to hunt deer. There were 12 members of the hunting party my family belonged to. Every opening week we packed up enough groceries and hunting supplies (mostly groceries) to last a week in the Texas hill country. Our party hunted on a 2,000 acre ranch which was bordered by the James and Llano Rivers. For a few years, I had been told that if someone dropped out of the hunting party, a spot might open up for me. After a couple of years of this talk, it was decided that I could go ahead and accompany the hunters. I was old enough to work for our friend, Don, who was the leader of the hunt. I swept floors in his welding shop, worked on his farm, and took care of two kennels of bird dogs. I was quite busy after school and on weekends for a while, and in this way I paid for my first hunt. As with so many things from my childhood and early youth, I had grand expectations of my upcoming experience. In fact, although I had never been there, I heard so many stories about the place, I had stitched together images in my mind that seemed more like memories than the guesses they really were.
The arrangement was that I could go. I would be a part of the group, but there was no bunk for me in the bunkhouse. My evening lodging was in a sleeping bag in the barn underneath the bunkhouse. My best friend, Johnny, was kind enough to forsake his own warm sleeping arrangements and throw his sleeping bag next to mine on top of some bales of hay.
The truth is, we all went into the hill country for a week of tradition. One of the more important traditions was the bringing of my mother’s banana bread. A couple of years earlier, Dad had forgotten to ask my mother to make the delicacy. It was a mistake the hunting party almost didn’t recover from. Other traditions included assignments for cooking breakfast, making the gallons of hot chocolate, and a big steak dinner with the ranch owners – kind of a good luck dinner.
As for the deer, I remember sitting in a deer stand with Don. It was bitterly cold, with an even colder wind. Light rain showers turned into a miserable stinging rain as the wind would whip it horizontally through our stand. It was the peak of the rut, and we watched a small buck chasing a few does for half the morning. I spent a good bit of time with my rifle out the stand window, watching these deer and shivering from that horrible combination of extreme cold and buck fever. Don eventually curled up in the bottom of the stand and took to napping. I was convinced his snoring would spook the deer, but I guess if the earlier pecan cracking and shelling didn’t do it, nothing would. After a while, it seems the wind even got the best of the deer, and they bedded down. Eventually we called it a morning and headed for the bunk house. Turning a corner on a hilly gravel road, Don told me to be ready, because we might just see the buck we had been watching. Sure enough, it was where Don had predicted. I started shaking again, this time strictly from buck fever, since the pickup was very warm. Don positioned his Bronco to afford me a shooting angle. I shot my first deer from a resting position with a borrowed .223. The subsequent field dressing of the deer and triumphant return to deer camp completed my initiation as a deer hunter.
I’ve often wished I could say that I stalked my first deer on foot for half a day, and dropped to one knee to shoot, or maybe had to track my deer. You know – something harder, or more sporting. But that’s not the way it happened. What happened was, my friend got me on a deer. And more importantly, he got me hooked on hunting for a lifetime.
Now, would you please pass the gravy?
