New site warning

I've decided to spend more time on my blogging so I reinstalled Wordpress on one of my hosting accounts and reactivated www.anglerwannabe.com. So, if you are linking to this blog or receiving the RSS feed, please update your links.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to having fun on my blog again (which means MORE fishing!!)

Thank heavens I don't have to worry about this

Alistair over at The Urban Fly Fisher ran across a carcass while fishing and pondered the fate of the sheep over the rest of the fishing season. Don't think I'll see anything like this in my area.

I usually enjoy his photography of the European rivers, but I'll pass on these photos.

Hook.TV Sneak Peak

Now this looks interesting.

I got an email today from a new social community for fly fisherman called Hook.TV. It's literally like a MySpace for anglers. They host video content from established providers such as the Trout Bum Diaries and Deep Stream Productions along with user submitted videos. They also provide a free blog for members and future contests.

I'm actually pretty excited about it and will dig in deeper after work today. BTW, my user name is obviously anglerwannabe on hook.tv so look for me.

I've been owned

The pond owned me again. And this must be turtle mating season - they are everywhere!

Beat the pond

I'm planning to master my local pond. I am tired of not being able to even get a panfish when I go out during my lunch breaks.

I got some great advice from Kevin, a former VA fishing buddy of mine. I've always been more of a trout fisher while he likes big bass and warm water species. I chatted with him over IM the other day and he told me what I need to do to catch bass out of the pond. I'll report on my success with his suggestions over the next couple of weeks. I'm determined to beat that pond!

Texas Trout 12-29-06

A friend of mine was in Texas to visit his parents over the holiday. His dad is an avid fly fisher and has a cabin/house within walking distance of the only public trout stream in the great state of Texas, the Guadalupe. The water is extremely low right now due to a drought in the area. Therefore, fishing is expected to be a bit slow.

I drove in from Houston starting at 7:00AM yesterday. It was a bit drizzly but my friend's father said it should help the fishing. I got in around 10:30a. After I toured the cabin and chatted with their english-accent speaking 5 yr old (they just moved back to the US from the UK, we headed out to the Trout Unlimited leases to see if we could get some freshly planted trout.

We arrived at one of the spots and found a few folks fishing already. Neither of us caught anything at this location.




A game warden came up to us and asked for licenses. I showed him mine, but Scot was in visiting and he didn't have one. So, the warden said that he would give Scot 15 minutes to go get one or he would get fined 150.






We headed back to the rental car to drive Scot up to the hardware store to get a one day license. Unfortunately, Scot's father accidently locked the keys in the trunk. I happened to have kept my mobile phone in my pocket so luckily we could call for help. We called Scot's mother to see if she could get a hold of the rental car company. Well, it turned out that when we called his mother, she was waiting for EMS to arrive because she had just fallen and broken her nose and banged up her knee. This was turning into a really odd day.

I got hold of the rental car company who sent out a locksmith about 30 minutes later. We got into the car, grabbed some BBQ and went to another location.

We had a bit more luck there. Scot's first 3 casts found a 10 inch trout on each retrieve.


I even pulled in one of the 10 inchers on a bh nymph. I missed a few strikes.

The wind kicked up and then we were pelted by very very cold rain.

Overall, it was still a lot of fun, even with the strange events that happened. I'm definitely going to join the local TU and get a lease so I can continue to fly fish for trout. Fly fishing around Houston for bass in murky still water just isn't the same as standing in a cold river, watching trout rise to flies on the surface.

3 months!

Wow, it's been almost 3 months since my last post. That tells ya that I haven't had time to fish in a long time and am very itchy to hit the water.

We have numerous ponds in the Woodlands that I plan on visiting soon. My kayak is still in Austin unfortunately. Fly fishing from the shore just isn't too much fun. As soon as I have time to get back to Austin, I'll hopefully pick back up posting.

I did take my son out to one of the lakes (or pond... at least it doesn't have a fountain in the middle of it) across the street from my house. He caught a 8 inch bass and thought it was the greatest thing ever. He wanted to take it home and put it in his fish tank.

Saturday at Padre

I got up bright and early this morning to make the long trip to Port Aransas. The weather was looking good - upper 80s and partly cloudy. That's pretty typical for this time of year on the coast. I previously picked up a fishing map for Laguna Madre so I decided to see if I can could find the flats near Port Aransas.

When I got to Port A, I had to board a ferry boat to get over to the island. On the way to the island, a dolphin followed us to the other side. It was pretty cool.

I had to drive a ways before I found an area that looked kayakable. I was very pleasantly suprised when I got out on the water. It was clear. I could actually wade in it and see the bottom. How nice! I could get used to that. Althought I only landed one fish - a speckled trout, I did see lots and lots of fish including redfish and sheapshead. I even saw some tailing redfish. The wind was about 15-20 miles per hour at times and I had a hell of a time casting. The only time I was able to reach the tailing redfish, I landed a clouser right on top of them and of course, spooked the hell out of em.

My camera seems to be taking blurier and blurier pictures lately, but I'm putting some on here anyway. Sorry for the quality.

This picture is actually of a school of redfish. You can't see them in the pic though.

Heading to Laguna Madre tomorrow

Yeah, I think I'm going to seek some clearer water than Galveston Bay water. I'm thinking of heading to Port Aransas tomorrow. Although it's supposedly a 4 hr drive, I think it'll be worth it. I'm going to watch my Fly Fishing for Redfish in Texas video tonight and hopefully I'll be able to catch something tomorrow.

Trout in Texas?

Yes, there are trout in Texas. I spent this Saturday on the Guadalupe river with my brother, a non angler. I brought my kayak and he rented an inflatable two seater. I felt very sorry for him as it was like paddling a bed mattress down the river. The water was relatively low this time of year so we got stuck on a lot of rocks. When there were rapids, man was it fun. I haven't had an adrenalin rush like that in years. He almost went off a small waterfall but managed at the last second to get out of the boat and pull it to the side.

I did manage to fish a while but only got one bite. I have no idea what to fish with on the Guadalupe and didn't do any research. The guy that drove us to the get in spot said a buddy of his caught a 24 inch trout a few days ago. Guessing from the looks of the guy, I'm sure that trout was dinner.

I'm definitely going to have to get back to the Guadalupe and spend some more time fishing before the mass of tubers hit the river.

It's so cool

I bit the bullet and bought a kayak this weekend. Although it's probably not the best time to be buying one, Fishing Tackle Unlimited on I45 was having a flyfishing and kayaking event and I just got carried away. Plus, I could save some good money. I ended up going for the cheapest sit on top kayak I could get, the Mainstream Kingfish. It was only $399 (or something close to that). It's an 11'8" long 30" wide kayak that weighs 46 pounds. I had to get a bunch of safety accessories as well so it drove the price up.

A very helpful guy, Shane, helped me through the whole process. Turns out that he was actually a stocker but said he can't say no when someone needs help. I really appreciated it and will be a loyal FTU customer now. I have a lot to learn about saltwater fishing so I need all the help I can get.


I took it out to Christmas Bay again and slapped the water with my line for about 2 hours. I had more fun in the kayak than I did fishing. Kinda scary. It was so stable and felt fast. I know it's probably a dog compared to the others but it beats the crap out of my old pontoon boat for speed.

I can't wait to get on the water again.

In a new world

So, I'm now in hot and humid Houston. I'm definitely missing the cool clean waters of the Provo. But, I'm also excited about learning my new home waters.. the Gulf of Mexico.

I've taken a couple of trips to Christmas Bay (about an hour from my temporary residence) and haven't had much luck. The entire bay is wadeable so that's nice since I don't have a boat yet. But, the whole wading when you can't see your feet thing is weird. It's hard for me to get used to. I keep reading about the stingrays in the area. I think this will accelerate my kayak purchase. All the cool bays and tributaries in the Galveston/Freeport area look so kayak ready.

I've been doing some tying of saltwater flys lately. They are a lot easier to create than the little bitty nymphs I was trying to do in Utah. I just need to find a few flys that work most of the time and I'll be set.

Yesterday, I went to Christmas Bay and started getting some activity on a red Deceiver pattern. I ended up getting it hooked in something subsurface and couldn't get it free. I kept pulling over and over, from all angles, but it was just stuck. So, I pulled harder and harder until ... SNAP... I broke my fricken rod in two. I felt like a complete dumbbutt. That was the end of that.

So, I went up to a fishing store that I had never heard of.. Fishing Tackle Unlimited. I picked up an 8wt 9' Temple Fork Outfitters rod as a replacement. The price was right and I have heard the TFO rods are great for the money. I had to have something, right?! I'll deal with getting a kayak later.

I went out today and had absolutely no luck at all. I didn't wade out very far so my guess is I was in the shore fishing area that most fish stay out of. There were lots of bait fish flipping out of the water, but I didn't even get a bite.

I stopped and ate some flounder in Surfside, hoping that the proximity to the fish would make the food better. I've decided that I'm not much of a flounder eater - didn't even finish it.

Eagle CO results

Trying to catch up real quick. So, I wasn't very successful in Eagle (par, I know). I caught a small - really small - cutthroat and an equally small brown. At least I caught something. There were a few folks up and down the river and I didn't see them catch anything.

I was there about 2 hours. Although it was about 28 degrees out, I got an awful sunburn. I was pealing like mad at my first day of work on Tuesday. It was a bit embarassing.

In Eagle CO

Bright and early tomorrow morning, I'm heading to the Blue River at the damn in Silverthorne, CO. I stopped at Fly Fishing Outfitters fly shop in Avon and was told it should be great fishing tomorrow morning. I have a bunch of little midge nymphs that I hope will work. The cool thing is you pull up to the outlet mall, park and you can walk to the river. Wish me luck!

New type of fishing

It's final now. I'm leaving the fishing paradise of the Wasatch mountains in Utah and will be moving to the Houston area. I'm going to miss the clear streams up here along with trout in lakes. It's bass, catfish, and sea critters for me now. I am close enough to the coast now that I'll be doing lots of saltwater fishing. I've never fly fished in the ocean, but I've heard it's hard to beat.

There is one trout stream in Texas, the Guadalupe River. It's maintained by the largest TU group in the country so when I went a few years back, there were people everywhere. But it is trout fishing in Texas so I'll likely join that huge group.

On Friday, I'll be in Colorado (driving to Texas). I'm stopping at the Roaring Fork river outside Vail for some fly fishing Colorado style. I don't know what to expect.