A kayak fishing discipleship!: 2015

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

This past weekend I participated in the Backwoods Ft Worth Kayak Bass Tournament on The Brazos River below Lake Whitney. Prior to heading down I visited TFO and picked up one of the “NEW” 7wt Clouser Series Rods to fish the tournament with.

The first thing I noticed about the rod was how light it is compared to my Series 1 Clouser 7wt. I also noticed the beautiful midnight blue blank with the gold accents and lettering (being a cop that was very appealing to me). The rod is topped with TFO’s Tactical Series Stripping Guides, ultra-lightweight chromium-impregnated stainless snake guides, and a beautiful new style cork grip. The rod is just beautiful. Oh, did I mention that they are now nine-foot in length?

I loaded up the rod with my Echo Ion reel and 7WF Float line and tied on an orange #6 bead chain eye Clouser, jumped in my kayak and headed down river.

Shortly after leaving the launch I stopped by a high bluff where I observed some guys catching a lot of fish. I eased down river from them about 15 or 20 yards and began casting at that same high bluff. The very first cast I hooked up with a magnum sand bass. I was very impressed with how well the rod performed while I was fighting and landing the fish. The next cast blessed me with what turned out to be a 22 inch striped bass. It was then that I realized the strength and amount of backbone that the Clouser rod had. I landed that striper with little to no effort.

The tournament was 10 hours and 8.5 miles long so I had the opportunity to catch many fish that day. I caught close to 200 fish during the tournament. They included striped bass, sand bass, largemouth bass, crappie, and a variety of sunfish.

At the end of the day I have to say that the New Clouser Rod is a win for TFO. It is perfect for every species for a 22 inch striped bass to a 2 inch bluegill.

They come in 9 foot, four-piece configurations in 5 through 10 weights.

The NEW Clouser Series retails for $199.95 - $219.95 and comes with TFO’s Limited Lifetime Warranty.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Brazos River Expedition

On April 18th myself and 20 others from the Mariner Sails Kayak Fishing Club launched our kayaks for what turned out to be a very memorable adventure.

We left the launch around 10 in the morning and paddled up river to a gravel bar which would be a our campsite for the night.

Many paddled and fished en-route to the campsite.

Others paddled straight to the site and began setting up their tents.

That evening we all met back at the camp to prepare our dinners.
During dinner several folks were closely monitoring the weather radar as a huge storm was working it's way across Texas.

That storm found us at about 7:30 Saturday evening and brought some serious wind, rain, thunder, and lightening with it. We all hunkered down in our tents to ride it out. It lasted for about and hour and a half and then moved on.

Once it was gone we decided to get out of our tents and survey the area to make sure everything was okay. Fortunately, everything was still intact.

While we were out we observed something huge and black in the river that appeared to be floating our direction. It first was believed to be a kayak that had gotten loose, then someone said it was a huge cow, and as it got closer we realized it was a large herd of wild hogs and that they were headed right toward us. Fortunately, when someone yelled "it's hogs!" they turned and ran away.

It continued to rain late into the night so we all turned in.

The next morning everyone was up at the crack of dawn. Some jumped in their yaks and took off up river in search of more fish while others of us hung out and cooked up some breakfast.

During break fast we handed out three collectible water bottles to three folks.

Funniest fish story of the trip went to the Lopez Brothers.

Person who brought the most stuff went to Dan Nelson.

Youngest camper on the expedition went to Hannah Brimage.

After breakfast it was time to start packing up and heading back to the take out point.

We all converged on the take out point around 2 o'clock and began dragging all of our gear and yaks up the hill to our vehicles.

This was a really fun trip. Many of the folks who attended had never tent camped much less load all their gear into a kayak and paddle it 3 miles up river and setup camp on a gravel bar. Then you add in the severe thunderstorm and it wound up being quite an adventure.

Everyone on the trip reported that they caught fish. Several stated that they caught over 100 fish over the two days.

I want to say a big thank you to my buddy Rick Hall. Without his help this event would not have taken place.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

mi vida loca

Okay, maybe it is more wonderful than crazy but keeping up with it sometimes makes me crazy.

I have spent time fishing, tying flies, attending tackle/boat shows, and even fishing a trout derby.

I'll back up to December 2014.

The City of Denison had their annual Adult Trout Derby in December and in spite of the freezing temperatures I decided to give it a shot. The fishing was slow but I was bale to catch a golden trout in the first 5 minutes and therefore be qualified for a prize. that was a good thing as I was not able to catch a limit of trout to be eligible for the grand prize of $100.

When it was all said and done I walked away with a cool monogrammed hat and a nice ultralite spinning rod/reel combo.

The next weekend was spent with my son in law Austin and my grandson Christian at a HOW outing. It was Austin's first time fishing from a kayak but not Christian's. We had a great time and caught some sweet fish.

The next week I met some buddies at Lake Fork for a little crappie fishing action.

We first had breakfast at Oak Ridge Marina where lots of lies were told and lots of challenges issued. We all signed a $1 bill and put them in a hat. Those were to be the prize for the biggest crappie.

A rod/reel combo was donated for the prize for the smallest crappie.

The winner of the biggest crappie was..... me!