D-Day plus 26 (D+26)
Conservation shift fire! Shift fire! We’re shifting fire again from today’s Everyday in May topic prompt- standby for a Texas Hill Country Mixed Bag tourney battle tracking update.
Confirm or Deny was the name of the game today.
The weather forecast was 40% chance of rain.
-Deny. There was no chance of rain. It was guaranteed at 100%.
I was skunked on the Guadalupe River hunting trout, yet again.
-Confirm. No comment.
Shifting to the Blanco is a good plan b to avoid the skunk.
-Confirm. This worked a second time. Even in crummy conditions I still hooked up with good size fish. This river is quickly becoming my favorite. When you know what you know- it’s a good feeling. Confidence is always a game changer.
70 plus degree weather in Texas isn’t cold enough to make your hands go numb.
-Deny. I knew it was time to go and was keenly aware of hypothermia settling in when I started insistently laughing at the fact that fishing today was probably a dumb idea. Not ideal conditions to say the least.
You can troll flying cats and hook up with good sized fish.
-Confirm. This was the only method that caught me fish today. With a drop from recent temperatures, a rise in the water table from decent amounts of rain, and a dropping barometer meant the fishing techniques/tactics had to be switched up. I had no idea how to mitigate these conditions but I was determined.
At first I was trying to hit the banks to no avail. Then something odd thing happened. While transitioning from one spot to the next in my float tube I didn’t bother to strip in my line. Feeling lazy I threw a good cast out and let it drag as I flutter kicked away. But, that’s not what was odd. In route I felt a tug.
Its a good idea to get into a float tube the day after an Army Physical Fitness Test. You won’t be sore form head to toe from the day before.
-Deny. Everything hurt! The APFT isn’t that grueling- but when you give your best, as any good trooper will, you’re going to feel it the next day.
Crying in not authorized.
-Confirm. I’ll stop whining now.
After toolboxing around on the Blanco I hit my favorite pool. Tired of working the banks with no luck I decided to try trolling again. This worked! I lined up with the center of the river, cast out and kicked away. Repeatedly, I got hits on my fly. The best catch that up’ed my point standing was the Red Breast sunfish shown above.
Getting skunked on the Guad twice in a row indicated a big fail!
-Deny! I worked hard both times after having my fly reel handed back to me by the Guad. I am not done yet and will come back until I get it right. What it did do for me was make me push hard to figure something out- on both days in very different conditions. It made me exercise what I know and learn to rely on it. It was all about knowing what you know, and knowing what you don’t know. It was all about playing confirm or deny.
I can catch fish. I can win this contest.
-Confirm. I can. Win or lose I’ll do my best and I’m having fun doing it. What games do you play on the water? How do you push yourself when fishing?
Today’s topic of D-Day plus 26 (D+26) is a deviation of the Everyday in May challenge. For more info click here. For all AirborneAngler Everyday in May posts click here.
FishArt
Today I am stepping outside the Everyday in May topic prompt list to talk about FishArt. If fly fishing isn’t part art form and science combined, then I don’t know what is. I hate the term warrior poet so I won’t point to it here- but I did find some interesting information. I was researching the Outdoor Blogger Network (OBN) and going thru some FAQs. I ended up looking at the directory of outdoor blogs. Click fishing blogs and there is an interesting number- almost 50% more fly fishing blogs to just fishing blogs.
Why?
Because we think we are all warri, no I’m not saying it- we have a creative streak in us in addition to the outdoor drive. So we write about it, we draw the fish we catch and take pictures of them. I like this. I may not be any good at it- but it draws out something inside of me I almost once lost. As a kid there was nothing more I liked than to draw. In high school I was into photography. Somewhere along the road of life I let that go or thought I grew out of it. Maybe I thought it wasn’t any good or it wasn’t good enough. Now, I just don’t care. Now I pick up pen and paper, I shoot iPhone photos with iPad filters, and have this thing called a blog.
So with this Everyday in May challenge, I challenge you do do something creative and something expressive. Reach way back into your tool kit bag and find that piece of you that you may have hidden away. Then share it because I bet it’s something special.
Click the FlyArt/FishArt categories on the “In the Scope” in the side bar to see my work. Good or not I’m proud of it and had fun. Thanks.
See you on the high ground,
AirborneAngler
Today’s topic of FishArt is a deviation of the Everyday in May challenge. For more info click here. For all AirborneAngler Everyday in May posts click here.
Mayday Mayday Mayday
Day 1 of the How Small a Trout Everyday in May Challenge
Today’s prompt: May Day. My spin: Mayday. It’s all the same-same right? Wrong. Initially you tell a grunt like me “Mayday,” and I’m going to come running guns-a-blazing, call in an air strike, or grab my fishing net to help you land the big one; fire fight or fish fight dependent. Google and Wikipedia have however explained to me that there is no need for alarm and that everyone needs to rally around- uh, a may pole? Is that like a salt water 12wt or something??? Fail.
Well, I have a mayday call of my own. I need a morale boost. Yesterday, two of my LongearHybrid sunfish fell off my scorecard and count for zero points in the Texas Hill Country Mixed Bag tourney. Being hybrid they don’t count as Longear and accordingly fall off. See picture above for a zero point fish (pretty feesh thou). Fail, I say again, fail. So I’m issuing a distress call to rally up some motivation and support. This can be delivered in the form of a Facebook “Like”, a Twitter share/RT/or mention, or any other platform you can send out some props/cheers/rooting me. Posting comments below to sound off to this post or other THCMB battle tracking update work as well! Signing up for COURIER DELIVERY would be the ultimate.
So here it goes… Mayday, mayday, mayday.
See you of the high ground,
AirborneAngler
Today’s topic of May Day is prompted by the Everyday in May challenge. For more info click here. For all AirborneAngler Everyday in May posts click here.
D-Day plus 15 (D+15)
When the conditions are right there is nothing like a good day on the water. When they are not- nothing is more awful. The later was the case today. So why bother you ask? Because I was going through withdrawals with all work and no play.
The only thing that made foul hooking a fish too small for points was foul hooking every branch and limb hanging over the water. No excuses on the wind- it was where I was aiming. In fact the sweet spot I was aiming for was over a submerged limb and under over hanging branches; a side cast shot into the wind and hooked in toward the bank. That’s what it took to catch the Longear of the day. Did I mention the lift in the hook set caught the line in said over hanging branches? Frustrating to say the least yet rewarding in hand.
The final straw that near broke me was my camera shy Bluegill. I do my best to be ready for the photo-op and a quick release, but it gets challenging when the fish won’t cooperate. It’s a good thing that sunfish are so resilient. However, today bordered on the ridiculous. It got to the point of having to replace and set the fish back in the measure board about 5 times. Each time almost bouncing and convulsing right off the board, onto the bank, and back in the water. It got to the point- and thank my lucky stars no one was around, that I literally verbalized my frustration with a yelling moan.
“You’re going to DIE floppy!”
I said it wit the upmost concern for the fish.
Anyways, I got the shot and he got back in the water just fine. Didn’t up a new species for the contest but I did up the size on the two I already had. Go Rangers!
ATW!
AirborneAngler
D-Day plus 3 (D+3)
After work I tracked down to Barton Creek for some sunfish action. I was able to pull this little guy out of the water with an OD green popper. Typically, such a small fry equals a non-event in the log book. However, for the tourney meeting the minimum catch size counts- and that’s something to get excited about!
Also, the Leaderboard for the contest went up today and things are looking good. Stay tuned and feel free to leave me some motivation in the comments.
ATW!
AirborneAngler
D-Day Minus 0 (D-0)
First days are rough. First day of school I think I cried hated it. First day in the Army- I know I hated that too. Even first days of things you like can really be rough. The first day of the Texas Hill Country Mixed Bag tourney was no exception. It blew. No literally,it blew really hard with a wind out of the south-east.
I prepped hard the night before. I looked over the map and weather info over every body of water I knew I could fish. All of them forecasted winds from 13-20mph. Despite its challenges the water was productive. Many fish did not measure up to the minimum requirements but was still fun. I tried to focus more on learning how to fish despite austere conditions and work on my cast. In my mind everyone else was playing the POG and staying away well protected away from the wind and water. The thought made me feel better anyways. I needed some form of motivation after all the fighting. Fighting the wind, fighting my line, fighting the measure baord, fighting the fish to stay on the measure baord. But this is why we fish right?
Airbonre! ATW!
AirborneAngler
Sketchy Sunfish
I went old school today and instead of reaching for my iPad- I reached for a real sketch pad. Remember those? I also picked up wooden hand held communication inscriber (no.2 pencil) and began to draw. The header above is the final product- but it’s more than that to me. Today it was a way to connect with the fish and the water when I couldn’t be out fishing. I set to drawing, for the first time in years, and didn’t care what the end result would look like because I was having fun. Honestly, I don’t remember when I stopped drawing. And I’m not sure what the last thing I drew was. But I found something in me I was proud of today.
Now maybe if I can catch bigger fish, I might have better drawings. We’ll see. ATW!
See you on the high ground,
AirborneAngler
The AirborneAngler 