The Back Cast: Newsletter of the Hill Country Fly Fishers, Kerrville, Texas
Volume 11 • Issue 8 • August 2006

Dealing With the Dog Days

Let's face it. From about 10:00 A.M. until after sundown, it's just too doggone hot to be pestering the fish. According to a dear friend of mine, my ancient American College Dictionary copyright 1962, the definition of "Dog Days" goes as follows: "a sultry part of the summer supposed to occur about the time of the heliacal rising of one of the Dog Stars, now often reckoned from July 3rd to August 11th. Sorry, you'll have to check out "heliacal" and"Dog Stars" for yourselves, but you get the general idea when you're out on a river pursuing your favorite sport while gradually acquiring a subtle case of attention deficit disorder paired up with a nagging effort to avoid a fainting spell. Oh, to be home with the blessings of air-conditioning and your favorite easy chair!

Yes, sir, it's that time of the year that tries a fly angler's dedication, but it also furnishes an opportunity to think about some serious items that are related to the discomfort. The echo of TV weather forecasters reminding watchers to drink plenty of water and to avoid being out in the heat when the thermometer is flirting with 100 degree temperatures seems like a punishing hallucination. Too late, repeated rubbings of sun screen hauntingly come to mind as would-be allies for avoiding serious consequences when challenged by the sun's unrelenting persistence . Rejecting a hat that protects more than just part of your head yet looks foolishly comical atop the old dome, may later result in a nose and the upper part of your ears pealing away as time goes by. You know the rest of the story. Well, the next time you just can't turn down a sizzling afternoon to go fishing, take heed. Pretty serious stuff can happen if you're not careful during these Days of the Dog. Fishing in the early morning would seem to be the most pleasant way to shoot some tight loops toward frisky fins. Book a fine siesta under the air conditioner for your afternoon activity. It's a good time to slip in a few sweet dreams of stripping in a bounty of piscatorial treasures.

Is anyone out there aware of Mother Earth's demands for a little appreciation and respect? Her scoldings are telling us to shape up. Increasing temperatures, more severe hurricanes, and melting ice at the poles–all seem to point to us humans as being the perpetrators of some of these alarming changes. What does this have to do with fly-fishing? One suspects that our treasured rivers, creeks, and lakes may, too, be undergoing a make-over. Some of these changes seem to be underscored especially during the Dog Days. Could lower water level and sluggish conditions on the Guadalupe be blamed entirely on just another one of those hot summers? Sure, but what about all of the new housing, more businesses, and increased drilling for water in the surrounding rural areas that draw upon our aquifer? Do we have adequate controls that prevent uncontrolled sapping of our river's circulatory system? It's something to ponder. There is no guarantee of an everlasting clean, healthy flowing, river. The Dog Days underscore the circumstances. We fly-fishers regularly wade local waters. Perhaps we are among the best informed among the general public as to the health of the waters we fish. Ideally, we would be natural and worthy "river keepers"among the population. Our club already has members taking water samples, planting Cypress trees, helping clean up trash and attending board meetings at various levels of the appropriate local and state entities. The tasks are never-ending. All of us need to educate ourselves, to contribute input and to participate in such matters. The Dog Days would be a good time to make such a resolution.

This "heliacal rising" of the Dog initiates a yearning for many anglers to answer a call to cooler places, usually in the mountain areas of the West. This year two factors come into play that may have called for a change plans: first, for some, the ever rising cost of gasoline may strangle thoughts of extended trips to higher altitudes; secondly, those cool places may not be as predictable as they have been in past summers. Have you watched the recent temperatures in the fly-fishing havens of the Rockies and far west? It's a gamble. Maybe the best shot would be to head for the closest place in the mountains that might be cool, but even if it the temperature doesn't cooperate, there are enough interesting things nearby to be entertaining and still make the trip worthwhile. Say, something like Santa Fe or Taos. There are a lot of fishing spots in that area that have tall pine trees along the streams. Also, some neat fly shops are handy to explore if the little lady doesn't fish. She will find plenty of delightful and enchanting shops along with fascinating places to eat. Rarely is one disappointed with the surroundings of northern New Mexico with its exhilarating scenery and historic blend of culture and recreational opportunities. It just might work-- that is, if we don't get blind sided by who-knows-what in these crazy, hazy Dog Days.

As the writing of this essay reaches its conclusion, a peak out the window shows the sky cloudy after a brief morning shower. Hope calls for a long shot that the day will bring more rain and that Mother Nature, the heavens, and all humans on this tiny spot in space and time will become suddenly kinder and gentler. Oh, well, August 11th, officially the end of the Dog Days, arrives about the same time this newsletter will reach its readers. Use your imagination. Look down the road a bit. Fall with its crisp mornings and cool evenings is not that far away, and the senses will sharpen with the change of seasons. The Dog Days will have a long trip to make before they come again.

–M.A.

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From Danny Wheat's Fishing Journal. . .
Conejos River in Southern Colorado
 July 15th through July 20th, 2006

I fished the Conejos River at the Aspen Glade Campground, which is approximately sixteen miles west of Antonito, Colorado, on SH 17. We were in our fifth wheel trailer and were nestled in tall pine trees at a beautiful spot on the river. The weather was delightfully cool with a high of about 78 degrees in the afternoon and in the low 50's at night. The river level was low for this time of the year and fishing was slow. Mike Hughes of Hunt and I fished from about two hours one morning and did not get a strike. I rigged our rods with a Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph and a small bead head dropper. We really worked some beautiful water, with lots of moving knee deep water and many big boulders to cast to. I was really disappointed because this was Mike's baptism for fly-fishing in a Colorado stream. We worked on the swing cast and he mastered it to perfection. The river was about 30 yards wide and had some deep pools and runs that surely harbored fish. We were able to wade into the river and then upstream where we were able to cast to the opposite bank.

On another day I drove upstream to the town of Platoro, which is an old mining town at about 10,000 feet elevation in a beautiful valley ringed by snow covered peaks. The guide in the fly shop at Antonito said fishing was better in the upper section because the water was cooler. Carolyn and I drove to Plotoro at about 20 MPH for over an hour on a very bumpy road to see what the river looked like upstream. We drove around the little mining town that once housed several thousand miners. Truthfully, we were somewhat disappointed that many of the old log cabins had been destroyed and replaced by a lodge and several modern cabins. There are also quite a few summer homes in the town. During the winter the town is deserted, and the road is closed as the snow gets over twelve feet deep. The lodge opens each May and closes at the end of October. The main attraction this time of year is four wheeling. There were over thirty cars in the parking lot and at the cabins. It was a little too crowded for us. During October, the elk hunting is the attraction.

We drove about a mile downstream where I found a flat spot to park off the road where I suited up before walking to the river. It is about ten yards wide and meanders through a beautiful meadow.

It is definitely wadeable. I fished for only about thirty minutes because a thunderstorm came out of the mountains and forced me back to the truck where Carolyn and I had parked. It rained pretty hard. The road back home was not only very bumpy but also had turned into slick mud in many places. I did not see any fish or any action and quit before the lightning came too close. The river bottom was covered with sediment and was not as pretty as it was downstream by the campground. I did not get any strikes.

I was pretty disappointed in the Conejos River until I talked to two different fly fishermen on the day I was leaving who had fished the river for over twenty years at this campground. They said fishing was slower this time of year than any year they could remember. They were still catching some fish though, and that really made me feel bad because I had misread the stream and had rigged nymphs. They both said the size 10 Parachute Adams or Renegade dry fly as an attractor with a small Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph as a dropper was a killer combo. Both said that about 50 percent of the hookups came on the attractor. This really surprised me as there was a great caddis hatch the one morning that I fished with a small caddis dry fly but got no strikes. I really misread the stream by fishing with nymphs. The next time I fish the Conejos, I will try an Adams with a BH dropper. By the way, both said that the best time to fish the Conejos is just after the high flows from snow melt, which is from the middle of June until about mid July. After then the flows drop and the water warms up so that the fishing slows. As usual, I had arrived after the best fishing was over when the water levels had started to drop. I plan to be there in mid June next year. I did manage to catch one 12 inch rainbow.

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"Mountains make the West bearable. If they weren't there to catch the snow, the Great Plains would shade imperceptibly into the Great American Desert. Without them, there would be no Colorado River and no Columbia, now wide Missouri, no Rio Grande del Norte. The West would be as dry as lowland Israel, as desolate as the Sinai."

M. R. Montgomery in Many Rivers to Cross,
New York, Simon & Schuster, 1995.

 

August Meeting: Thursday, August 17, 2006; 7:00 P.M.; UGRA offices at 125 w. Lehmann Drive (behind the Texas Dept. of Public Safety on South Sidney Baker); Business: reports and announcements; Program: Guide and club member Rick Wilson will present a very informative program on his experience in fly-fishing the Guadalupe and Llano Rivers. Also, Cory Miller of Kerrville Kayak and Canoe has a new fishing craft he would like to show us and is scheduled to bring it to our meeting.

[Special note: The planned trip to Belize in October has been put on hold until further notice. Those who had already signed up will be contacted personally by Edd Stach or Roy Hickman.]

"And how many chances do you get to spend a day or two hanging out at genuine outpost–a town that's either literally or figuratively at the end of the road–talking to people who actually live there, getting a glimpse into how things are done? And if life there at first seems maddeningly casual and unscheduled, doesn't that mean that you have, in fact, achieved the ultimate goal of the traveler–that is, to have finally reached a destination that isn't just like the place you left?

John Gierach in Standing in a River Waving a Stick,
 New York, Simon & Schuster, 1999.

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Oktoberfisch
Fly fishing festival

Fly-fishing In the Texas Hill Country is a pleasure that many native fly fishers yearn for during those dog days of summer. When autumn rolls in, we grab our rods, head for the nearest river and jump in with youthful abandon, knowing full well that December will soon bring cold waters and lethargic bass.

The banks of the legendary Llano river will once again be the scene for the third annual Oktoberfisch, a festival of fly-fishing.Based at Keller's Riverside Store on highway 87 between Fredericksburg and Mason, Texas, the festival offers fly-fishing enthusiasts of all levels a venue to come together and enjoy a weekend of comradery, education, kayaking and fly-fishing in the cool, clear waters of the Llano river.

Festival activities include:

Participants receive a registration packet that will include an assortment of flies popular on the river and other goodies.A list of lodging possibilities other than primitive camping will be available to those who prefer a less rustic environment.

For those who delight in Texas fly-fishing while leisurely enjoying one of the crowning jewels of Texas rivers, the members of the Fredericksburg Fly Fishers invite you to join us on the weekend of October 20th, 21st, and 22nd for the third annual Oktoberfisch.

Last year's festival was a huge success with well over one hundred participants attending. This year promises to be even bigger and better.

 For more information please check out our website at www.fredericksburgflyfishers.org

 Or you can contact

Gene Smith at 830-997-8881
Bruce Ward at 838-997-8388
Steve Rawls at 830-990-4696

 You can also contact us via e-mail at Oktoberfisch@hotmail.com.

Come and join us. . .

 We hope to see you this fall at the third annual Oktoberfisch!

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From FFF ClubWire. . .

DVD & Book Reviews

Trout Bum, Twentieth Anniversary Edition by John Gierach, 2006, hardcover,240 pages, $ 29.95 list, ISBN 0-87108-944-0, Release date: July 1, 2006. Available from Pruett Publicating, PO Box 2140, Boulder, CO 80306

Since its publication in 1986, few authors and books have had such an impact on the world of fly-fishing as John Gierach's Trout Bum. Now, twenty years later, we are pleased to announce the publication of a twentieth anniversary edition.

The wit, warmth, and easy familiarity that John Gierach brings to us in Trout Bum is as fresh and engaging now as when it was first published. This twentieth anniversary edition offers all of the classic stories that first made Gierach a streamside name, including a new introduction by the author and a series of commentaries by notables in the fly-fishing world (including Jim Babb, Robert Berls, A.K. Best, Tom Bie, Ed Engle, Dave Hughes, Ted Leeson, Nick Lyons, Charlie Meyers and Seth Norman).

For both those new to the sport and also those who have been doing it all of their lives, this timeless book should be read and reread by trout bums everywhere.

[Other books by John Gierach include Fishing Bamboo; Another Lousy Day in Paradise; Dances with Trout; Even Brook Trout Get the Blues; Where the Trout Are All as Long as Your Leg; Sex, Death, and Flyfishing; Flyfishing Small Streams; The View from Rat Lake; Trout Bum; and Flyfishing the High Country.]

Fishing with Back Pain
By Kim Lyons–Taken from the Northwest Flyfishers Newsletter

For those of you who suffer from painful lower back conditions, sitting in a boat with poor seat support–especially a pontoon boat or float tube–can be a long, painful day. I have discovered a wonderful little device that allows me to spend much more time in my pontoon boat and float tube with much more comfort and much less pain. It is a simple little self-inflating portable lumbar support made by Thermarest. Since it is inflatable, it can get wet without any problems. I stick mine inside my waders, right under my waist belt, and then the cinch belt to hold it in place. Adjusting the amount of support is as easy as just turning the open/close valve since it is self inflating. It also works well in the car, camp chair, airplane, office, etc. It is available at REI, and probably any other store that carries travel items, for $ 29.95.

I'm not an official spokesman for this product. I've just discovered that I'm a LOT more comfortable and pain-free when I use this, and that I really miss it when I don't. It helps to maintain better posture throughout the day and reduces the dreaded, painful slouch that becomes unavoidable in a boat seat. Since I know that many fly fishers suffer from significant lower back pain, I felt it may be helpful to share this device with others just in case it may help someone else too.

For product information, including online retailers, see www.thermarest.com

  What Is Angling Etiquette?

By Rosemay Weise –Taken from the Northwest Women Flyfishers Newsletter

One of the missions of Northwest Women Flyfishers is to promote and encourage stream etiquette and to educate our members. In our excitement to be fishing, we sometimes forget our manners around the water and exhibit less than exemplary behavior.

The Law:

The Environment:

Who Has the Right of Way on a Stream?

All of the following:

The floating angler yields to the walking/wading angler.
The first angler to arrive has the right to that pool.