Monday Morning and I’m …
Not Calling Any Shots
Babe Ruth called it during the World Series in 1932. With two strikes on him, against the Chicago Cubs, Ruth pointed and put it there – deep center field and over the fence.
There are not that many chances to call it when we fly fish, and if we do, we run the risk of jinxing it because … that’s how a lot of fly guys think. Admit it. With this religion comes a sizable dose of superstition.
Heck, even thinking I’m going to catch a fish, before I see the environment the setup if you will, is tantamount to looking God in the face and correcting grammatical mistakes as he emblazons the Ten Commandments on the tablets.
Yet, I still try to beat the powers, thinking I am patterned, locked-in. If you watch today’s video posted here, there’s not a sign of being “locked-in” at any moment on the huge Lake Texoma. No, about all I can predict, by braille mostly, is what’s on the line, and I even missed that this time! I have caught so FEW smallmouth bass in my years, they catch ME off guard and uneducated in the way they are piscatorially possessed to fight like no other. In short, I had no idea I finally caught my first Texoma smallmouth bass, until I saw it with my own tired eyes.
Truth be told, I want to KNOW what a smallmouth bass fight feels like, again, again and again. I want to get to know I have a smallmouth on, and not some demon mystery fish I have to see to know. But Texoma smallmouth are still my mystery. For example, this one I caught in about five-feet of sand bottomed water between several islands on the lake. The water was just over 80-degrees, and there was bait – all sizes and everywhere. Go ahead and pattern that for me!
Battling Back
☀️The heat staged a late weekend comeback Sunday, and all the pleasantness of the past few days boiled away. It’s as if these solar storm flares are not only flooding the cracks in the earth causing tectonic shifts, they are also cooking the humans on the surface, in Texas anyway. I am starting to wonder if the sun is telling us, “this is how all it ends.”
Still, get far enough away from the DFW heat island, and mornings are extremely pleasant right now. So that is what I want to prepare us to do – get away! This week’s stories include a highly detailed, AI generated, story on a kinky little lake near Granbury, Texas.
Speaking of bright suns, Comanche Creek is a nuclear cooling lake, meaning it is actually warmer than average, the air does get cool there, and the fish grow all year long, and the nearest (to DFW) sizable population of tilapia resides THERE. Comanche Creek, once named Squaw Creek, has a lot of nuances to it. Not the least of which is the fact the Lake is only seasonably open, and yes, that season starts NOW. This little lake is so interesting that I saw Chat GPT as the door-opener to details about all facets and the history of that lake.
For me, the journey to Comanche Creek has to wait until the imbalance between air temperature and water temperature grows a little bigger. It is my “stalling tactic” to avoid driving across the Messtroplex – no matter the hour.
More Pressing Waters
No, the more pressing, less traveled water this week (here I go calling my shot) is Bois D’Arc Reservoir in Fannin County. That lake has everything to offer. A new lake, away from the DFW heat island, crowds waning in year two, waning by two or three glitter boats … and a real opportunity to LEARN a new lake top-down. Heck, at 216-miles for a round trip? it’s a hop skip without the jump away. I was there the week after it opened, and it’s time to get real about Bois D’Arc.
That is a long shot to make two weeks in a row, and that means I am hoping to get into the rhythm of that lake from day one, again calling the shot! At least I included “hoping” to appease the fish gods.
Thanks for reading this morning. If you subscribe to this site, I think that means you get notices whenever new stories come out? This is a good time to do that because the story on Comanche Creek is truly impressive (Chat is learning ME very, very well now) writing by the bots. It compresses days of research by a human – into seconds, and that is a huge gift for both of us!
