bulldog1935

not a good photo, but a great meal in a pinch (with the stores winnowed out from the freeze demand) Grilled redfish half-shell fillets, zucchini roasted with parmesan, and wild rice. Adding to this, and this is Josh's good photo - he made shrimp-and-grits one night when this was all we could find at the store. Cajun sauce, and some nice Gouda-goat cheese blended in the grits.

btw, Josh and I each got a very nice presento from Donny I also handed over a wish-list venerable glass fly rod to Josh that he had been researching and asking about - in Josh's hands, it will get a lot more use chasing hill country endemic bass in small limestone creeks than it would if I kept it (I have too many to choose between). Josh's new/old rod is the 6'6" Fly Fox on the bottom. ps - here's one of Josh's photos, and his creative make-do feast - shrimp-and-grits with a good cajun sauce. He blended some really tasty Gouda-goat-cheese into the grits. Whatever he could find in the freeze-depleted grocery store. and a photo of me showing him my first red in Little Cut

He bought his first on my recommendation, and went back for many more. I fish the salt and like reels built to last and catch big fish. IMO, Libra SX is the best $100 reel out there - it's basically their offshore Cybernetic rebuilt in smaller sizes. Stepping up to Shimano '19 Stradic is the $200 reel, but before '18 Stella, I didn't give a hoot for Shimano. Can also tell you I like Tica's line roller better than Shimano's - all my Shimano line rollers get replaced with MTCW. I fished a little Cetus in salt XUL for a dozen years. People who get floored by Shimano smooth may not get it, but people who do this on UL tackle do get it. Also have a Caiman I use in an offshore jigging niche. The reel doesn't fish inshore lure weights, but is great with a 2-oz jig. I'm sure I'd like a Conquest here, as well, but this is a $150 reel.

I think the whole fishing industry was taken over by whimsy names decades ago, from model names to lure colors. OK, these really aren't mine, but two Ticas I'm customizing for a friend. Both got orange Daiwa Custom Project handles, which were closing out at Marine Deals in NZ

ahhhhhh heck of a weekend

Thanks, the other 2 days of the trip weren't quite so wonderful fishing, except for the good times with friends. I'm really glad we got Donny onto such a great tide phenomenon stacking reds for him (ok, us, too). The wind turned out to be brutal the next two days, and we weren't going to last long enough either day to find afternoon sight-fishing with reds up on skinny grass. Sunday, we made the long drive to Padre Island National Seashore, to launch on the Upper Laguna Madre side at Bird Island Basin. We knew the wind was going to be tough - we didn't know how tough until we got home - it was gusting to 24 kt on the Malaquite Beach gauge. The structure here on the barrier island is beautiful, and very much like far South Padre and LLM - hard pack sand, and potted sand holes switching to deep grass. A drift will get you across this flat to the ICW spoil island shallows. Launching at the windsurf beach. The thing is, I don't drift away from home. I paddle upwind first, so I get to fish easy all the way home. After one drift, a long struggling paddle to get back upwind, I planted on a beautiful hardpack shelf against the island, ate my lunch, lit my cigar, and watched them on my binoculars. I saw Donny facing me almost the whole time, and wondering if he was ever going to get back across the flat. Finally, he and Josh made it - knowing we would have a hot shower waiting for us at the digs - a week without one for most of us - we called it early. Rather than paddling the wind, Donny and I walked our boats back to the basin boat launch - young Josh blasted ahead to get the truck and meet us. Besides, we were grilling those redfish tonight.

This plan began 6 weeks ago, Josh and I wanting to plan a February trip for low tides, wading, and fly-rod sightfishing for reds. I picked the 5 sequential best tides for the month to give us both current and sunny afternoon highs. At the same time, my buddy Donny in Colorado had been jumping through his computer wanting to kayak the TX coast flats. A few weeks out, Josh and I made the plan to invite Donny down to Neumie's Copano Bay digs and paddle a long weekend. The named winter storm that shall remain nameless hit just before our schedule, but that wasn't stopping us. The deep freeze hit the coast just as hard as the hill country, and reports of fish kill looked devastating. Still without water at home, and only recently with power restored, I headed south to meet Donny, who had swept west of the storm, and beat us both down there. Compared to the second hard snow we got the morning I packed out, Josh's digs sure look inviting. They had the same water problem, and it would be two days until we got a hot shower, slim pickings in the grocery stores, but we made do The next morning, wind shifting from NNE to light E, we were launching at Palm Harbor to cross Estes flats. Note the size of the beach at Palm Harbor The goal was to get to Little Cut for the late morning incoming tide current. With a week of beating NW wind, water level on the flats was the lowest either of us had ever seen. My "bright" call, let's head north first to Trout Bayou cut - when we finally ran out of water and had to stand to float our boats, could see Trout Bayou was bone dry. It was a really tough trudge through the mud to float and then drag our boats back to Little Cut. So we should have gone due east straight to Little Cut, but maybe paying our dues this morning paid off. It was a huge relief when we got enough water to float again, and as we paddled the inside of the cut - right where they should be grazing on the rising tide - we crossed 300 redfish. Here's Donny hooked up, looking from the cut to the inside pass Here's Josh at the center shoal facing Aransas bay and far-away San Jose Island. It would be silly fish catching. Donny was catching them on Vudu shrimp, which he handed me one and after a slot red, lost it from my paper clip. But the reds didn't care what lure, they wanted the mud balls from bottom-bouncing. I did just as well on a pink Trout Support on weighted swimbait hook. Almost all the reds were 18" - think I only caught two out of sixteen under that - I ended up with two slot fish to fillet, and Donny with a 3-fish limit. A fond farewell to Palm Harbor. We filleted the reds "on the halfshell" - skin-on fillets for grilling. That night, Josh made us shrimp and grits, and we floated the fillets in ice water overnight, but I wanted to show you Sunday night's meal with massive grilled redfish fillets. They were amazing, and picking the charred meat from the ribs was the best part.

hi friend, just pulled in tonight from fishing the coast flats for 3 days - I'll get a report on other fish species page later. The speckled trout kill from the freeze was horrible, but we were walking on redfish, found an incoming tide pocket with 300 reds and limited. Ate skin-on-grilled fillets. Knobs - the baitcaster single counterbalance is Livre, fortissimo knob on SB 60-mm-pitch handle - caught 16 redfish on that handle Saturday. The clear acrylic knobs on the spinning double handles are Avail. The handle on the Tica is a Daiwa SLP 45-mm-pitch with IOS hex shaft adapter. The handle on the Stradic C1000S is a Livre base with Gomexus 36-mm-pitch carbon. Regards

Borrowed from a friend in Aransas, TX If 2020 is hell, 2021 is hell frozen over.

ok, and this knot is 1/3 the volume of a double-uni and Much stronger - with double-uni, the thinner line can cut the thicker, even if they're both mono. another choice, you can go loop-to loop. A perfection loop in the mono, and a double surgeon's loop in the braid large enough to go over the reel to complete the loop connection. This isn't as strong as the Allbright, though.

This line calculator for stacking lines of different diameter is very accurate. And here's how clean you can make an Allbright knot - I've shot these knots through fly rod snake guides for 40 years. The trick is to roll them as you're tightening - remember the direction from when you made your loops.

We have power now, and I'm melting snow to fill toilet tanks. Got the power company call that the state has suspended rolling outages for power conservation. They predicted 1" of snow today, ending in the afternoon, but it's already over 4" and coming down harder. Been getting in a lot of reading - just finished the 1919 Aransas Hurricane in Aransas - Life of a Texas Coastal County. We got nothing compared to that.

I've used this example before - after 100 years, the box is worth more than the contents. The wooden box for a pre-Civil-War fishing plug sold in auction for $12,000.

I alter all my reels, tuning them to my likes. The reel boxes make a good filing system for keeping track of the parts.

howdy Neighbor

Last time this topic came up, I realized I've never experienced line twist - seen it on my friend's decades-old Penn loaded with heavy braid. Warning - line roller editorial: Shimano's line roller, the same from Stradic to Stella. Only this is after cleaning all the white lithium grease. Why does Shimano go to so much trouble to seal their line rollers? Because they're made from brass. Honestly, Tica uses a better line roller design than this. When I saw this thing thing I replaced them all with MTCW no-seals, 2-BB line rollers. IOS and Hedgehog offer their own version and full-bearing kits for Daiwa. The other thing I do is fish my spinning tackle with a micro-swivel bite trace, which keeps the line continuously relaxing any twist while you fish.

an oldie but a goodie - the girls and Joe Boxer on a school-break snow day.

We hit 3 degrees two nights in a row, a foot of snow, finally getting a thaw today, and also just got power back. Even 1899 didn't get this cold in s. Texas - there's no record to compare it. Still no water because of rural water company line breaks (probably saves busted pipes in my house) - but when I saw the water trickling, caught everything I could (still have water in my water heater if needed). I survived on my ancient Coleman single burner, set up a makeshift kitchen in the garage with aquarium stand and spare floor tiles breakfast burrito-size pulled-pork tamales in the steamer

If it makes you guys feel better, I have a foot of snow, blowing drifts, and hourly rolling power outages (state electric commission's way of controlling thermostats) - and tamales in the steamer. The adrenaline fish here are big hen speckled trout - for the same size, they're stronger and faster than reds, and their mouths are softer. This girl spent mot of the fight tailstanding and shaking her head. At the boat, when she decided I wasn't going to let her swim under, broached again and slammed her head against the hull 3 or 4 times.

you make leader knots at home, under a magnifier if necessary, and put a drop of super glue into them. Then when you're on the water, you're tying to fluoro or, even better, using quick-lure-swap terminals.

I'm surprised no one has made the suggestion of tying fluoro leader to braid for shock tippet. Braid will not stretch before it breaks, fluorocarbon is tough and invisible. Here, 22-lb braid tied to 15-lb Seaguar Blue for ML spinning. I add a loop on the end of my shock tippet. You can loop on more sacrificial fluorocarbon for tying on lures, or loop on a paper clip or micro swivel wire leader for swapping lures - the micro swivel is also good to let spinning line untwist continuously on its own. I tie improved-Allbright knot to my shock tippet, but I've also been tying Allbright knots for 40 years.

yeah, but the only time our vehicles are salted is when we drive them down the beach. And I'll be here next weekend.

the drag should be set at no higher than 1/4 of the rod's max line rating.

Blade Running Make the audience wait 40 years for a lame sequel to a monumental movie, and let an understudy direct it.

Asian Portal used to send e-mails for everything. My thought, the current AP e-mail dearth is a staffing skills issue - no one shows up for work who can handle the English. With a log-in, you can check your order status, and you can also rely on your paypal and Fed-Ex communication links for payment and shipping results.