RIVER MONSTERS

People keep asking me if I watch the TV show "River Monsters" and I keep telling them "no, I catch river monsters, why would I need to watch that show?"

Well this week was no exception to that statement. I fished The Red River Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and slaughtered the stripers. The biggest I landed was in the 26 inch range. I also caught a blue cat in the 6 pound range, a small channel cat, and a couple of gizzard shad.









Thursday I hooked into a fish (that I never saw) and it took off like a rocket. It was stripping my line off the reel and the reel was singing. When it got into the backing I decided that I better try to turn the bad boy. When I put pressure on the line it snapped at the connection to the backing. I could still see the floating portion of the fly line so I'm running (in 2 1/2 foot of water on slippery rocks) after that fly line. I would run a few feet and fall, run a few feet and fall, and then I lost sight of the fly line.

Bye bye Mr. River Monster.
I'll hook you again one day.

TBF Get Together at Ray Bob

We loaded up and took off early Friday morning for Johnson Branch State Park on Ray Roberts.

The event was the 2nd Annual Texas Best Fishing Forum get together. The event officially started on Saturday morning so we had all day Friday to do what we wanted. We got there and immediately got bad news. I had overlooked calling for a reservation and they were completely booked. Therefore, we were forced to make a decision to leave or camp in the overflow. We chose to camp in the overflow. The overflow is a parking lot with picnic tables and a fire ring for each space.

Oh, did I mention NO electric or water?

We setup and it started getting HOT.

So, we went to Sanger and bought an 8x8 canopy which helped a bunch.

It was then time for some dinner. I fired up the charcoal and when they were

hot I put the potatoes in the coals to begin baking. Patty seasoned up the steaks.

After the potatoes had been in for a while I started the steaks. They turned out

great. Tender and juicy with just the right amount of seasoning.

I got up Saturday morning really early to get on the water at sun up and the wind

was blowing around 18 to 19mph and gusting to probably 23-25mph.

The bass tournament started at first light so I decided to give it a shot.

You know, of course, that I'm fishing from my yak and using my fly rod. :-}

It was tough but I managed to ease back into a creek and avoid most of the wind.

The fishing was slooooowwwww with me only getting two blow ups on a topwater

popper and no hookups. After about 2 1/2 hours I decided to throw in the towel.

I went back to camp and we started preparing the chicken, sausage, and dutch

oven apple cobbler for the group luncheon.

We tore down our camp, packed up, and headed to the pavillion for the afternoon festivities.

There was tons of food and prizes. It was a great time. Patty won some very nice prizes

(which I better not receive as Fathers Day gifts) and I won some good stuff too.

We headed home after lunch to get a little R&R (yes, camping is not always R&R).

New Toy for our collection...

Early this week I sold our little Heritage kayak.
I then beat a path to Academy to buy a canoe they have on sale.
It is a 15 1/2 foot Pelican Dakota.



I took her out to Waterloo Lake yesterday for the maiden voyage.
She's a very sweet boat and I was impressed at how sweet she paddles.
I used a single paddle but have decided that when solo I need to use my yak paddle.

I took my Tadpole fly rod and did a little fishing. I caught several members of the sunfish
family and a decent sand bass.



Here's the whole fleet ready to go camping.