Folly 12 o’clock high
“One last cast,” that’s what I told myself as I cast my new, super-short, 3wt fly rod. I went to Brushy Creek for lunch because the itch to learn the feel of my Cabela’s CGR fiberglass rod was insatiable. The short 5’9″ set up was exactly what I needed working this creek. Like many waters running through the Texas Hill Country, Brushy Creek is exactly that- brushy, overgrown with not-a-lotta room to work with. Clearance is limited and this little glass fly rod was just the ticket to tackle it.
The only fish that came to hand was a nice little bass. The fun thing I am learning on fiberglass is how the rod doubles over no matter the size of fish. When I said one last cast (again)- I double checked my watch. If I didn’t run back to the office- literally run… I wasn’t going to make my one o’clock meeting. Not allowed to be late I did like any good paratrooper would do; I did the airborne shuffle back on in.
I made it on time… barely.
Foolish as it may have been to risk being late for a lunch time fish- making it on time by the skin of my teeth made that little bass that much larger.
Go fish something.
See you on the high ground,
AirborneAngler
Inspiration
See you on the high ground,
AirborneAngler
Today’s topic of Inspiration is a prompt of the Everyday in May challenge. For more info click here. For all AirborneAngler Everyday in May posts click here.
Simple Green
I worked up this bass from a photo I took a few months back. With Greenery being the topic for today’s Everyday in May challenge I thought a green photo filter would suit it nicely. 
The fly used was a white bead-headed crystal bugger.
See you on the high ground,
AirborneAngler
Today’s topic of Simple Green is a modified prompt of the Everyday in May challenge. For more info click here. For all AirborneAngler Everyday in May posts click here.
GoPro Thursday
Oh yeah ya! Exciting things are in the works at AirborneAngler HQ! New to the tool kit arsenal is a GoPro HD Hero- locked and loaded ready for cam. Plus today is thursday. So now its GoPro Thursday.
That’s right. So expect crummy videos while I try to field test this thru my next few outings. I played with it some today and I got to say, AirborneDaddy likey.
The bass above unfortunately is not a still shot from the GoPro. As Murphy’s Law of Combat Angling states in rule 12: “No fish shall be captured on film day one of camera purchase.”
And additionally, rule 42: “The batteries will always die one minute before you catch the skunk breaking fish. No more, no less- one minute.”
Write those down. That is all.
See you on the high ground,
AirborneAngler
Today’s topic of GoPro Thursday is a modified prompt of the Everyday in May challenge. For more info click here. For all AirborneAngler Everyday in May posts click here.
Mother’s Day Misfire
Today’s installment of the Everyday in May challenge: Mother’s Day Misfire at Mansfield Dam.
Apologies first for this not being a touching Mother’s Day post. Did you check the name of the blog though? Mother’s day operations having been completed (like a good son) I found myself with half a day out on the water.
The night before I received the recommendation to hit Mansfield Dam at the top end of Lake Austin. For reference for those unfamiliar with Texas Hill Country lakes- we don’t have any. We take rivers, dam them on both ends and call it a lake. Lake Austin then is really just the Colorado River boxed in between two dams. (That’s dam being said 5 times so far those counting.)
What did not come with the recommendation to hit the dam was intel on the condition of the water. With recent rain all our rivers were pretty much blown out so I was looking for somewhere new. When I hit the water boy was it cold! I felt like an ice cube in my float tube. Additionally, there was a lot of weedy-algae-spounge-like under growth everywhere. When I made my first gripe report back to my “source”, he informed me he had never been there before and to nut up.
So I did. I bounced around in tube but with not much to show. With the weeds below my Flying Cat arsenal was out of the fight. A chartreuse popper had no effects but a cypret minnow finally got the skunk avoiding ping. Hey fingerling bass count but the Redear made me feel better.
With morale low I bumped down to Bull Creek at the lower end of the lake. So far the dam was a misfire, but that wasn’t the biggest one to come. Long story short I lost a decent sized bass. Still not the misfire… wait for it. I lose plenty of fish; bad hook sets, spitting the hook, I mean it happens. Never before have I lost the hook in a fight. That’s the first half of this misfire. The second half is when I saw the same bass cruise by later. How did I know it was him? Because he was holding my Flying Cat like a Joe Camel in his mouth. True story! Misfire!
The water was clear enough for me to see it plainly and painfully. Which, by the way, makes it a good hook set. There was no immediate action drill I could do to recover from this. I wanted to take a picture- but as good as the iPhone camera is (near all my blog photos are take with my iPhone), it just wouldn’t have happened. So in reflex and in vain I sight cast to him. Yeah, I think he was done for the day. And so was I. Keep marching to the sounds of the guns!
See you on the high ground,
AirborneAngler
Today’s topic of Mother’s Day Misfire is a modified prompt of the Everyday in May challenge. For more info click here. For all AirborneAngler Everyday in May posts click here.
Line Side Big Mouth
I almost named this Fish Art post “Southern Largemouth Trout”. However, it was a misread of largemouth bass nicknames that were separated by a comma which I missed. The list that I found is located online here. Additionally, I figure it’s not fair to the sturdy holdover trout here in the Texas Hill Country that get stocked annually in the Guadalupe River. Line side and big mouth just happened to be the next two in line I liked the most. So, I decided to combine them. Who knows, maybe Southern Bigmouth Trout will stick though?
In lack of being able to fly fish the past several days- I submit this Autodesk Sketchbook Pro generated art I made as the background for the device of your choosing. Bass- Largemouth, Smallmouth, coveted Guadie, or any bass for that matter are my preferred game fish here in Tejas. Recent competition in a Hill Country tourney have me chunking flies at any and everything. But since I haven’t been doing any of that lately, my routine iPad Terminal Angler Syndrome (TAS) therapy is helping the symptoms abate. Enjoy!
See you on the high ground,
AirborneAngler
The AirborneAngler 