reevesr1

Made it out today with my brothers. We fished the jetties (big rock structures stretching several miles into the gulf to protect the Houston ship channel). Our first stop was at a shrimp boat owned by an old friend. He also had some company... The thing about the jetties is you never know what you are going to catch. Unfortunately, no big fish for us today, but we did catch a few specks (won't bore you with more pics, and a couple of these little tooth critters, released unharmed... You think its crowded in Alberta? This is what you get when you live next to 5 million instead of 1 million. And the boats stretched behind us a far as you can see. What do you think it's like on the weekend? Uh oh, maybe time to skeedaddle? We just made it to the dock when this hit. More bark than bite, blew about 25 MPH or so, not for very long. But if you haven't been through one of these in Texas, its hard to describe how hard it rains. Anyway, hope to have some more tomorrow. It looks like to surf is going to be on in the morning. Feels like opening day to me....

TL is always closing the Bow. You gotta watch him, he's tricky. Actually, the only section that is closed is between 22X and Mac. All else is open.

Gee Max, wonder when you took that pic? I wish I had a video of you running around up there acting like the great white hunter!

Rusty, I have had some utterly explosive stikes in the early morning using the above method. Its pretty exciting going from the very subtle pickup of the nymph when drifting toward you to them nuking the streamer on the swing. YeeHaaww! Its also interesting how many will hit the streamer on the high stick. That is usually not so subtle! My son hooked his first really big rainbow this way on the swing. Didn't catch him but it left us both breathless.

Bruce Springsteen in 1985 I think in San Diego. Never was a huge fan before, or even since, but live he is a sight to behold. Holds the audience in the palm of his hand, for like 4 hrs. You leave exhausted. Worst: Aerosmith in 1978 or 79, just before they broke up. Everyone was loaded, music sounded like garbage. I was the biggest fan and utterly disgusted. I still have never seen them live.

Very nice! A little Mike Vick humor. Love it!! What's not so funny is that to many people, we are ethically the same as dogfighters. Dube, I agree completely. But I think the feeling you get from the experience of fishing, or being outdoors in general, is not directly related to the ethics or humaneness (is that a word) of the catching of the fish itself. There is obviously something visceral in the catching of the fish that many of us are addicted to. I mean, we could get the same outdoors fix if we were bird watchers. Or if we fished with flies without hooks. But in reality, many of us really, really like the battle. So as many here have said, not in exactly these words, is justify it internally any way you need to. If you can't justify it, stop (though if you are on this board, odds are you are not going to stop). I thought the most poignant and honest post here was Clarki. He admitted something that had to be difficult for him to do. He fishes while thinking it is inhumane to the fish. That must be very difficult to justify internally. Clarki, I say this with complete seriousness, you have my total respect for that statement and my sympathy (not exactly the right word, but I hope you get my meaning) for having something you obviously love cause you conflict.

Mr. Loblaw, Happy birthday to you, whoever you are the alter-ego of! Keep stirring the pot my man!

Glen, Awesome. Hope you have a blast. Catch you some of those big browns. The fly selling business must be doing well! BTW, not sure you are qualified to use ya'll.

Hey lonefisher, You know, it is too bad that we cannot discuss the hot topics without getting into trouble. I don't know when it became impossible to have discussion about differences of opinion without it getting personal and escalating into anger. Unfortunately, even when you are writing something in what you think is a neutral tone, that is rarely what is "heard" by the person you are disagreeing with. That's too bad as I really enjoy these types of issues and have no trouble separating the argument from the person, if that makes sense. People disagree and to me, that's one of the things that makes life fun. RabbiEE, Thanks for this. Very interesting discussion.

Fisher, As I said, this is my opinion and I don't expect everyone else to share it. And I never said I don't think fish feel pain. I said I don't think they suffer. There is a big difference. Pain is the response to nerve endings sending signals to the brain. Suffering is an emotional response to pain. Emotions require higher brain functions. Fish ain't got 'em. If I thought they did, I wouldn't fish. Tough subject to discuss, particularly since it gets to the core of someone's belief system and noone wants their belief system questioned. I can discuss it with you until the cow comes home, hopefully without malice or anger. But comparing my opinion to racism is cutting pretty close to the bone. I'm sure that's not what you meant, but if you did I would take pretty major offence to it. I am from the south and take that kind of stuff pretty seriously.

Guess I'll wade into this one. Big surprise, huh? I have been on and off religous through my life. I'm in an on stage right now, and fully intend to stay that way. That being said, I must say my active or inactive belief in God has in no way impacted my feeling on the ethics of fishing. While I fully believe we should be conservation minded, I believe that because I want the fish to still be around for future generations. Not because I have ever spent a second wondering about the pain, suffering, etc. of any individual fish. I know many people when they keep fish to eat will try to kill the fish as painlessly as possible. While I guess I can see where if you project any ability to "feel" to a fish, you would want to limit it's suffering, but for me the fish has no ability to feel. Suffering assumes a higher brain function that I don't think fish possess. I kept two saltwater fish to eat this week. I put them on a stringer and when they died, they died. I know that for many of you this may seem harsh, but I didn't give it a second thought. Any quite frankly if I did think they could truly feel, I don't think I could fish. The guilt would truly then be too great. I could not in good conscience allow anything to suffer for my enjoyment. Now I must say that it is possible that my "belief" that fish do not suffer is directly related to my desire to catch them for my enjoyment, if that makes sense. As an aside, my father shrimped for a living for many years and I ran a boat myself for awhile. Should I feel guilt over the millions of shrimp I allowed to die? Or the bycatch involved? Please do not read any tone of voice into this. I am in no way questioning anyone elses opinion, just stating my own. And in agreement with MTB, Pipestone, et al, this is a hard subject to succinctly state one's feelings.

Guys, In my limited experience with fly fishing and salt water, I have noticed that ability to cover water is a major detractor when not sight casting. Seems however that a Spey rod might even the field a bit if 100' casts are possible. Also, the ability to cast bigger streamers would be a significant deal. The biggest advantage could be wear and tear on my shoulder! Anyone have any experience with spey in saltwater? Any major temperature effects in tropical/sub tropical water?

I saw the weight as well, but my very strong suspicion is that the principle will apply for 2.9g porgies and 1000 lb marlin. Decreasing metabolism with size/age is pretty universal, I think, across all species. Also, something Lonefisher said falls in line. Here's what I think: Small fish more suscepceptible to summerkill due to O2 depletion than larger fish due to metabolism. This will hold until weakness due to age starts to affect the larger fish. That would explain why some really large fish die in bad water conditions. I've never been around a summerkill in fresh water, but I bet you see a lot of little and very big fish, not as many mid size? But as I've said before, I don't let me total lack of knowledge get in the way of stating strong opinions. In other words Weedy, I could be completely wrong! Where are all the biologist to set the record straight?

Flyslinger, Sure. But I don't know jack!!

Weedy, I just did a very quick internet search and it looks like metabolism rate decreases as body mass increases. Here is a link to the abstract http://www.springerlink.com/content/ur34734013188116/

Don't want to sound stupid (probably way too late for that) but why would the biggest fish be the most susceptible? I realize they need more oxygen, but with larger gills, for any given O2 concentration, would get more than a smaller fish due to larger gill surface area, correct? So wouldn't it be a wash? Just like people right? Size does not really matter when the O2 content is low. The healthier individual is least susceptible. Or am I totally off on this?

It's funny, but no. They actually do not grill well at all. Meat is too soft. They are great fried, broiled, whatver but are very hard to cook on the grill. Redfish however are very tasty on the barbi! Filet him down the backbone, leave the skin on and grill away. We call it Redfish on the Half Shell.

But your boxing skills would have come in handy!

Now that one was funny! Birchy, liked yours too. Don't listen to the critics! Just jealousy rearing its' ugly green head!

Ian Tyson and Ryan Adams? You are one eclectic guy there Pigl! I listen to ESPN on Sirius, both ways. I am so boring.

My grandfather, on my dads side, was nicknamed Slick. Those of you who have seen my hairline, or his for that matter, would think they understood why.But they'd be wrong. For his funeral, one of my aunts brought some old newspapers clippings from Tyler Junior College football games where my grandfather was the star running back. They called him Lloyd "Slick" Reeves. I asked my dad "Was Pa Pa bald in college?" Dad said "No, why?" I said "Because they already called him Slick" Dad said the nickname had nothing to do with his hairline, they called him Slick because he was slick, but not in the football sense, in the smooth operator sense. Seems my grandfather was a bit of a well known character. My uncle used to travel around all over the country, and was a bit of a pool shark. Used the money he won gambling to finance his travels. He said he could not count the number of times he was asked where he was from and when he said Texas City, Texas someone would reply "Texas City? Do you know Slick Reeves?" So here are two Slick stories: Slick was a gambler, and he cheated. Dad said Slick could shoot dice and shoot a different pair on every throw. He could palm and had some sort of dice holding device in his sleeve. As a cheater, he could also spot a crooked game right away. There was one such game at the mob controlled Balinese room in Galveston. Slick would go there and play the house at the craps table. The boys would let him win for awhile, and then quietly come up and say "Slick, that's enough for tonite" and Slick would go home. One night, he had a few too many Lone Star's in him and decided to ignore the gentle warning to go home. Said "it's a free country and I can do whatever the bleep I want". Dad said he was awoken that night to the sound of squealing tires and when he went outside to investigate he found his dad, Slick, with the *hit beat out of him laying bleeding on the front yard. Seems pissing off the mob boys was a bad plan, but at least they brought him home! No real harm done and he was back betting the house a few weeks later. But from then on when they asked him to leave, he left! Story 2: Dad used to arrange a fishing trip every year in Louisiana. The first year a few of the guys got drunk the first night, didn't wake up, and dad left them at camp all day. After that, Dad instituted a no drinking rule for the fishing trip. The next year he invites Slick. Slick hears about the no drinking rule and called it "The stupidest effin rule I've ever heard". Asks "if I find some beer, can I drink it?" My dad said "Daddy, if you can find a beer in the middle of nowhere, you are free to drink it" (Southern Louisiana was very remote in those days). So first day they are fishing this big sand bar in a mile wide pass between the Gulf and West Timbalier Bay. We called it "The Big Bar in the Middle". (It was the most productive piece of water I have ever fished anywhere in my life.) So there are like 8 guys all lined up on this big sandbar, all with LOTS of fish on stringers. During this, a pontoon plane flies overhead. Now this is pretty unnusual, to say the least. Slick starts waving to the plane which then lands on the back side (calm side) of the sand bar. Slick wades over, has a conversation with the boys inside and they give him a flat of beer. Slick walks up to dad and says "Can you believe it, I know a couple of those guys. I said if they give me some beer I'd let them fish here. That OK?" Dad laughs and says "sure, daddy". Ole Slick knew eveybody! OK one more: Sometime just after the war (I think) Slick was looking for work. Most of the work was locked up by unions, and if you weren't a member, you were pretty much shut out. So Slick and his buddy walk into a Union Hall one evening and Slick asks "Who is the toughest SOB in here" Now Slick wasn't all that big, but he was way tough. Anyway, some big ole boy says, "That would be me" Slick looks at the big, supposedly tough SOB and asks the crowd "IF I can kick his ass, you guys give me and my friend a job tomorrow?" To which he hears laughs and a "Sure". So they go out back, have at it and Slick does a bit of ass whuppin. But before he can collect on the deal, hears sirens and runs off. The cops come, Slick sneaks back up behind the crowd and says, "Holy *hit, looks like someone beat the snot outta that guy". He sees a bunch of guys trying to stiifle laughs. He and his buddy got a job the next day. Pretty Slick, 'eh?

So, am I understanding you correctly in that you are enjoying this spey casting thing? You were a bit ambiguous in stating your feelings in the above post. By the way, I found the Jean-Luc reference fairly arcane. But while were on the subject, can I be Number 1? In all seriousness, I love reading posts when the excitement shines through. Have fun with it Glen!

Glen, Thanks. The apology could not have been any more tongue in cheek. I have no trouble using whatever method works. I will however say that I can take catching significantly less fish with the fly rod, but it is so outgunned on the flats when you are blind casting. You just cannot cast far enoug to cover enough water, or at least I can't yet. Grannyknot, We call them Speckled Trout, really because of their shape and well, spots. Technically, they are not trout. The real name is Spotted Weakfish, a member of the Croaker family (don't know the actual scientific name). Called weakfish becasue of their weak mouths. There are no true trout in warm (subtropical/tropical) saltwater, or at least that I know of.

I flew into Houston yesterday for a 3 day training course. I thought the course started Monday, but it starts Tuesday leaving me with a day to kill and my mom at work, so no guilt at leaving to go fishing the first morning I'm visiting her. My plan was to get out about 4 am to the surf, but when I went to look last night, it looked like crap (the surf here needs to be pretty clear to be good, and it is not right now) so changed plans and hit a reef that is a very old friend. I hit the water at 5:15, which is about an hour befor daylight. I took the 5 wt as there was not much wind. I threw clousers, poppers (little topwater flies), deceivers and a couple of spoonflies. It was pretty slow, with only 3 little sand trout (a different species of trout than what I was after) to show for a couple of hours of wading. But it was very nice to visit the reef again! When the wind picked up, and my arm felt like it was going to fall off, I decided to change tactics. Warning: The following contains references to non-fly fishing techniques, the use of, gasp, live bait, and also non-catch and release methods. Not exactly the right forum for this report, but whatever! My mom asked me to bring some fish home because she hadn't had fresh fish in awhile. Put me in conflict with myself, since I'm a fly fishing catch and release guy now! But, I don't know how most of you were brought up, but where I'm from, when mom says "bring me home some fish" you best do it. Plus, conservation methods here have had the population of these trout stable for years, so I didn't feel that guilty. That combined with the fact that they are very tasty! So when the fly rod wasn't getting it done, I decided to pick up the trust old open faced reel and have at 'er. I also decided that since I hadn't fished the area in awhile, I would tilt the scales a bit more in my favor by getting some live bait. Didn't seem like that good of an idea an hour or so in since I hadn't hooked a fish. Changed spots a third time and I saw some bait and signs of fish feeding between two groups of waders (the groups were about a mile apart). Parked the car, waded out, and was very quickly rewarded with a big hit and screaming drag. WhooHoo! It did not take me long to realize I had not been totally co-opted by the fly rod. This was still fun! After a nice 5 minute battle, I was rewarded with the following 24" trout: Anyway, I ended up catching 1 more trout around 16-17" (kept) and one 18" redfish (released). I also had lots and lots of pick ups and drops. Basically they pick up the bait and run until they feel resistance, and then they drop it. A sign of the end of the feed. When they are agressive, they just eat it. Like anything else, sometimes it ain't as easy as it looks. Anyway, here are a couple of pics of the red and of the two trout I kept (the out of focus on the bottom of the last two pics is from water on the lens) Anyway, I'll be back at it with a boat and my brother this weekend. I'll try the fly rod again!

Learned that one from trying to give golf tips. Ooohh the pain! Never again, let the professionals teach! I'll be taking her again sometime this month. I hope she does get into it, she really is fun to do things with.