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Captain Mike |
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Last Trip of 2009Jake Thomas of Pflugerville and his dad, Jeff, from Hunt, Texas came down to Rockport to try their luck at a little sight fishing. Unfortunately the wind made sight fishing a little tough and most of the fish we saw were very close to the boat. We did see a lot of fish including some really big trout. Here’s Jake with one of the reds he caught. We also released a 26” |
December '09Montana fly guide and outfitter, Bruce Pershing, spends his winters on the Texas Coast. Bruce and his wife own the Scenic Valley Lodge in Montana which is one place I’d really like to |
December '09
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December '09Terry Deeds brought his friend, John Norton, of Texarkana down for a couple days of flats fishing. The weather was miserable but the fish was pretty good. With clouds, |
November '09Bob and Mark Oliphint made the long drive from North Texas to spend a couple days on the flats. I’ve known Mark and Bob |
November '09This is Steve Slater from Houston. He came to Rockport for a little flats fishing R&R. The topwater bite turned out to be pretty good. Here’s Steve with a nice red that was |
November '09Jill Port has fished with me for quite a few years. She is learning to fly fish although we have yet to get her |
October '09Ed Stork and his step dad, Jim Fryer, of Austin booked a trip after a presentation I did in Austin for the CCA group. They had not done any sight fishing before but caught on pretty quick. We saw well over a hundred reds but most of them were either spooky or not interested in eating. We did manage 4 for the box and released a few more. I think Jim would like to come back a try for some reds on his fly rod and I’m down for that. Here are Ed and Jim with a couple of the reds they picked off.
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October 09
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October 09I went down south to the Lower Laguna Madre to fish with a group of guys from Houston at Duncan’s Lodge. Conditions were less than perfect with winds around 30 mph everyday. We did get some fish though. Here are Mike |
October 09Phil Belt and Mike Tucker came to Rockport for a golf tournament and a little fishing. Phil has fished with |
September 09Want to Book a Cockatiel Trip? I was fishing with Terry Deeds in South Bay on a windless day in September and fishing was tough. Then, out of no where, we see this little bird flying towards the boat. He was struggling to stay just inches above the water with his tail dragging and wing tips hitting the water. He flew in front of the boat |
August 09Cystic Fibrosis Cast for the I have been involved with the CF tournament for several years. It’s a fun tournament and we raise a lot of money to fight CF. This year I was again teamed up with Dick Jones and Philip Bahr who were sponsored by Tiffany’s in the fly division. We ended up with the second place trophies but Dick won the big redfish trophy with this 29” brute. Way to go guys. I’m looking forward to next year. |
August 09Scott Belt and his wife came down from Houston for some more flats fishing. His wife, Jennifer, didn’t fish but really enjoyed the boat ride, the birds and the scenery. Scott, on the other hand, got busy with the fly rod. Here he is with a nice red he caught. Scott and Jennifer are expecting |
August 09Longtime friend, Bob Oliphint, and wife, Connie, came down from the Dallas area for a l |
July 09
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July 09
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July 09Dennis Hilton of Fort Worth came down with his son Kenneth for some summertime fly fishin |
July 09Joseph Ochoa and his stepson, Robert Dudley, came down from Houston to fish with me for the first time. With the |
July 09Rodney Rowe of Temple came down to Rockport to shake off a little fly fishing rust before heading to Florida later this month. We were faced with totally calm conditions, which really make fly fishing difficult. |
June 09Although he has caught bonefish and tarpon in Belize, Dale Polk, had never caught a redfish on a fly. We took care of that |
June 09Scott Belt cashed in his recent Spot Tournament win with a free half day. Here he is with a nice red that ate a crab pattern fly. Unfortunately that was the only one we could get to eat our offerings. Scott’s coming back in August with his |
June 09Longtime client and friend, Dan Williams, has been fishing with me for 7 or 8 years and for some reason I never got a |
June 09This is Adam Fey of Hurst, Texas. Adam comes down and fishes with me once or twice a year. Even though we had tough conditions with clouds and gusty winds we were able to find some tailin |
May 09Like Father, Like Son Erik Julifs came down with his dad, John, for his first try at redfish on the fly. John has fished with me several times is the past but this was Erik’s first time on a flats skiff. Erik |
Spring 09I had the opport |
Spring 09That is James Davis of Fort Worth behind the mask with his first red fish on a fly. The 22” red ate a crab pattern in the Naked Man Cove. He was fishing with his good friend, |
February 09
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December 08Larry Gentry and his buddy, Critz, were beneficiaries of a trip bought by Newell Blume at the Cystic Fibrosis, Cast for the Cure Tournament. They came down for |
December 08
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December 08Jim Shulin of Temple Fork Outfitters came down to Rockport to be the guest speaker at the Rockport Fly Fishers Christmas Party. Jim and I planned to fish Thursday morning for awhile. A very strong cold front blew in Wednesday, December 10, and conditions Thursday morning were less than perfect. It was |
November '08
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November '08Alyson Wilson of Houston brought co-worker, Mike Byers of Michigan down to Rockport for a |
Fall '08Ivan Estes has fished with me for several years but his wife Carolyn had only fished once. Carolyn came back for another try and this time she really got into the sight fishing aspect. Here she is with a nice little red that she |
Fall '08Simon Walshe of |
Fall '08Jerry Sloane fished with me at Doug Dunkin’s Back Bay Lodge in the Lower Laguna Madre in October. He was part of a corporate group with Schl |
trout. Jake was really getting the hang of sight fishing and I hope he gets back down here when the conditions are a little better.
visit next year. Sight fishing was tough and fly fishing was pretty much not going to happen but Bruce did manage a few nice reds and a couple trout while fishing with Terry Deeds of Houston. Better days are coming Bruce and we’ll get some fish on the fly.
rain and really cold temperatures sight fishing was pretty much out of the question but John caught some nice fish.
since Mark and I were in the 2nd grade and that was a long, long time ago. We had great weather, good fishing and a great time. Here they are with a couple of the reds we caught. Next time Mark we’ll get the fly rod out and I might even let you pole.
in the Carbon Black Lake.
hooked up with a red on the fly. We’ll get it done someday. Here’s Jill with a nice red she caught in South Bay.
and Doug with a couple of fish they caught. It was their first time to fish the LLM but I think they will be back.
me several times but this was Mike’s first attempt at sight fishing on the flats. Fishing was a little tough but we did manage a few reds. Here are Mike and Phil with a couple of the reds they caught. Hey, how did you guys do in the golf tournament?
and crashed into the water about 30 feet out. I poled over and Terry reached down for the bird. The little guy jumped onto Terry’s arm and crawled up to his shoulder. To our surprise it was a cockatiel. Terry took it home and gave it to his neighbor that has had cockatiels in the past. She named him Salty and he is happy to be back in a cage.
Cure Tournament
their first child, a girl, soon so it may be awhile before they get back down for some fishing.
ittle get away and some fishing. We found some tailing reds early and Bob picked a couple off but Connie broke hers off. Later in the day Bob tied on a Chug Bug, top water, and I thought he had lost his mind. Everyone knows you can’t catch reds on top waters in August in the middle of the day, right? Well you just never know. He caught two nice reds in about 10 minutes including this big 28 1/4" monster.
them. Both Richard and Carl caught some nice reds and we had a great time. Hope Richard comes back soon and brings some rain with him.
g. We were able to find a few tailing reds in Allyn’s Bight and along San Jose Island. We never got a chance at any jacks though and Dennis really wanted to get one. Here is Kenneth with on of the reds he caught.
summertime pattern in full swing we had a little trouble getting a whole lot of reds but we did manage a few. Here is Joseph and Robert each with one of the reds we caught. Then we found a school of jacks along the Aransas Channel. I gave Joseph my 10 wt fly rod and set him up for a shot at them. He laid the fly exactly where it needed to be and a big jack immediately grabbed it. Unfort
unately it broke off in a matter of a few seconds. I tried to get Joseph to cast my new 12 wt at them but he insisted that I cast. So I tossed a big fly at them and, brother the fight was on. It took about 45 minutes to get the fish to the boat. I could not have done it without Joseph operating the boat and Robert landing the fish for me. Thanks guys!
The fish were very spooky and very well aware of our presence. Rodney had to make some pretty long, accurate casts to get the job done and as you can see he was up to the challenge. Good luck in Florida my friend.
when Dale caught this nice little red in the Naked Man Cove. It was a tough day as most of the fish we saw were not at all interested in eating but Dale coaxed this red out of a pothole. Good work Dale!
wife to try again. Looking forward to it Scott and tell your dad I said hello.
picture of him on the website. Well, here he is with a big, battle scarred, 28 1/2" red that fell for a TTF Flats Killer Minnow. The fish was one of about 12 Dan caught that day. All the fish caught were sight casted to in water less than a foot deep. Dan and wife, Marsha, are moving to Victoria soon, and he’ll be able to fish the coast a lot more.
g reds. He fooled 5 reds and a trout into eating Flats Killer Minnows in some really skinny water. Adam is holding a 7 spot red he caught out of a pod of tails. Those 7 spots put him in an early and commanding lead in my second half of 2009 spot tournament. Way to go Adam.
picked it up pretty quickly. After missing one when he lifted his rod to set the hook he got the hang of the “strip set”. He ended up with 2 nice reds including this one with 7 spots. Those spots put him in a commanding lead in my spot tournament. John won one of the spot tournaments awhile back and just like attending the University of Nebraska, Erik is following in his dad’s foot steps.
unity to fish with Terry Deeds of Katy and Denver Lake of Houston down in the Lower Laguna Madre.
We fished out of the Arroyo Colorado River behind the Duncan House. We caught several nice trout and a few big reds. Here’s Terry with a wacky jawed, 31” red and Denver with his 27 1/2" red. They both ate Killer Flats Minnows. We had a great day with lots of laughs and some really nice fish.
Dennis Hilton. Dennis gets honorable mention with the smallest red fish I think I’ve ever seen caught on a fly. The beautiful little 2 1/2” red ate a shrimp pattern fly. We all had a good laugh about it. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it.
caught and tagged this nice 28 1/2" red. Soon after that the wind kicked up to about 40 mph and we were pretty much done for the day. Sure enjoyed fishing with Steve and Keaton and hope they come back after Steve's next tour in Iraq. Be safe over there my friend.
their first try at sight fishing. Although we did not catch a bunch of fish we did get some really good ones. As a matter of fact each of them ended up with a trophy. Critz caught and released a 26” trout while Larry caught this nice 33” red. It was his largest fish ever and was bigger than the striper his wife caught and had mounted. Larry tagged his red and it will be displayed next to the wife’s striper when he gets it back from the taxidermist.
friend down fishing the same day in another boat and had some friendly competition going. They kept the cell phones going with bogus fishing reports all day. We had a lot of fun and I hope they come back soon.
36 degrees and the wind was still out of the north at about 15 mph. The sky was clear and the water was low so I knew we would at least be able to see some fish. So with a little arm twisting I convinced Jim and Terry Deeds to go out and at least give it a try. What a day. We ended up with a total of 26 reds and at least 20 of them were caught on flies. Here’s Jim hiding behind one of the reds he fooled into eating some fur and feathers.
little fly fishing. It was Mike’s first attempt at redfish with a fly rod and unfortunately the wind and clouds made it very difficult. We saw several reds but they were very close to the boat and made for some really tough casts. Mike was very determined and would not trade the fly rod for a spinning rod. Alyson did and here she is with a nice red that ate a Killer Flats Minnow. They had redfish on the half shell. Mike, thanks for the book.
casted to and got to see it eat her lure. We saw a lot of fish that day but most were not very interested in eating. She ended up catching 2 reds and I don’t think Ivan is going to be fishing much by himself anymore. Way to go Carolyn!
Amarillo by way of Sydney, Australia came down for a little sight fishing with Terry Deeds. Here’s Simon with a big red he caught on a Killer Flats Minnow. Simon now claims to be the new “Bill Dance of Amarillo”. Simon I’m not sure Bill Dance ever caught a red fish that big.
umberger from Houston. Jerry fooled this nice big red into eating a Killer Flats Minnow. She took him around the boat a couple times but he managed to get her to the net. Nice job Jerry. Let’s do it again.